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Iran's Ahmadinejad finally wins backing for new oil minister

TEHRAN (AFP) -- Iran's parliament on Sunday approved President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's fourth nominee for oil minister, the ministry's current caretaker Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh, ending a three-month-old dispute over the key post.

Vaziri-Hamaneh was widely seen as a compromise choice for the hardline president, who had been pushing for a fresh face to purge a ministry he claims has been run by a "mafia" and for Iran's huge oil revenues to be distributed among the poor.

He won the backing of 172 deputies out of the 259 present in the 290-seat Majlis. Fifty-three MPs voted against and 34 abstained.

Deputies had rejected Ahmadinejad's first choice on August 29, arguing the radical nominee lacked experience in a sector which accounts for 80 per cent of the country's export revenues.

The president's second nominee was withdrawn ahead of a vote, while the third was rejected last month.

In a brief speech, Ahmadinejad touted Vaziri-Hamaneh's experience, saying he was "one of the caring, pious and devoted sources of the oil ministry, who has been in different parts of the oil ministry for more than 30 years."

"For more than three months he has been running the ministry well," said Ahmadinejad, who appeared confident he would escape another embarrassing no-confidence vote for his nominee.

Born in 1945, Vaziri-Hamaneh has spent his entire career in the oil sector, the backbone of the country's economy.

Iran, holder of the world's second-largest oil and gas reserves with an estimated 12 per cent of global oil reserves, currently produces 4.2 million barrels per day, or 5.2 per cent of the world's production.

Vaziri-Hamaneh has a masters degree in governmental management and began work as a petroleum project engineer in a subsidiary of the ministry.

He became a director of corporate planning in the oil ministry and has served as a board member of the state-run National Iranian Oil Company.

One MP, Sattar Hedayatkhah, said Vaziri-Hamaneh was even "more competent that previous oil ministers," and went on to chastise the president for proposing a series of inferior candidates.

"The good point is that we've arrived at this position step by step, right from the bottom," he said.

Parliament is controlled by Iran's right wing, but many deputies have voiced unease with Ahmadinejad's ultra-radical style that many fear is pushing the country back into international isolation.

The long-running dispute over the minister