Mahmoud Ahmadinejad : President

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Tehran's ultra-conservative mayor, won a run-off vote in elections in June 2005, defeating his rival, the former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to become Iran's first non-cleric president for 24 years.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defends Iran's nuclear programmed though it is difficult to see how he can possibly assume power when there is a Supreme Leader above him. Promising an administration of "peace and moderation", Mr. Ahmadinejad said his government would press on with Iran's controversial nuclear programmed.

Doubt has been thrown on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's and Iran's intentions when publicly he commented that Israel should be "wiped off the map". His claims that the Holocaust was a "myth" drew further international condemnation and confusion.

Born near Tehran in 1956, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a former provincial governor and Revolutionary Guards officer. He was actively involved in the Islamic revolution and was a founding member of the student union that took over the US embassy in Tehran in 1979. But he denies being one of the hostage-takers.