Ahmadinejad: In quotes

Conservative Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took Iran by surprise in a landslide victory over the presidency on Saturday.

Ahmadinejad, 48, won the backing of the religious poor to defeat veteran politician Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was supported by pro-reform parties and wealthy Iranians.

The son of a blacksmith, Ahmadinejad, 48, was elected mayor of Tehran after a vote marred by a record low turnout in 2003.

In the 1990s he was governor of Ardebil, a religiously conservative city in north-west Iran, where he had to contend with flooding and a severe earthquake.

He was also a special forces officer in the Revolutionary Guards and an instructor with the Basij religious militia, who are fiercely loyal to the principles of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

But his victory has put in doubt Iran's fragile social reform process, started by outgoing reformist President Mohammad Khatami, and raises questions about how Ahmadinejad will handle Iran's nuclear impasse with the West.

A compilation of quotes by Ahmadinejad over the campaign period up to the elections reveals his key policy areas and where he intends to take Iran during his tenure as president.

Relations with United States

"Relations with the United States are not a cure for our ills."

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has no fear about restoring ties but ... how to carry it out must be studied so that the independence, pride and self-esteem of the Iranian nation will not be harmed."

Nuclear Programme

"Acquiring peaceful nuclear technology is the demand of the whole Iranian nation, and the rulers as representatives of this this people must put all their efforts into realising this demand."

"Those who are in negotiations are frightened and do not know the people ... A popular and fundamentalist government will quickly change the country's stance in favour of the nation."

Social/Political Freedoms

"We did not have a revolution in order to have a democracy."

"People think a return to revolutionary values is only a matter of wearing the headscarf."

"The country's true problem is employment and housing, not what to wear."

Economy

"Currently, the private banks have no positive or constructive role in the economy, rather a destructive one."

"I will cut the hands off the mafias of powers and factions who have a grasp on our oil, I stake my life on this ... People must see their share of oil money in their daily lives."

"The increase in petrol prices has led to an increase in all other prices. The solution is to use public transport."

Internet

Is it a concern? "No ... we cannot shut the doors to the country."

"My own phone bill is so high because my children use the internet so much."

World Trade Organisation

"Iran needs at least more than three years before joining the WTO. We need time and need to defend our industry."