Iran leader keeps nuclear power plan in sights

PRESIDENT-ELECT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed yesterday to pursue a peaceful nuclear program - an effort the US maintains is really a cover for trying to build bombs - and said his government will not be an extremist one.

Mr Ahmadinejad also said Iran did not need the United States to help it become more self-reliant.

His comments came as Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld criticised Friday’s vote, in which the ultraconservative former Tehran mayor steamrolled former President Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, as a “mock election”. Mr Rumsfeld said more than 1,000 potential candidates, including all women, were disqualified from running by the country’s hard-line Guardian Council.