Ahmadinejad's growing popularity after a year

In the year that has followed his shock election win last June, the austere hardliner has stood up to Western demands to limit his country's nuclear programme, called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" -- or moved as far away as Alaska -- and dismissed the Holocaust as a "myth".

But inside Iran, he has roused nationalist sentiment and pushed through a populist economic agenda -- and for the time being there appears to be no threat to his position as the Islamic regime's number-two behind supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"In the provinces, everybody turns out for his appearances," an Iranian political observer commented on the president's rock festival-style rallies across the country.

"The government's loans for marriages or rents represent a lot of money for the poorer classes in the countryside or small towns," said the analyst, who preferred not to be named.

"He's definitely been growing in confidence and stature," added an Iranian newspaper editor. "We don't have presidential approval ratings in Iran, but if we did, Ahmadinejad would certainly look very comfortable."

After winning the June 24, 2005 vote -- and trouncing the veteran moderate conservative cleric and favorite Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani -- Ahmadinejad promised a "new Islamic revolution".

"The era of oppression, hegemony, tyranny and injustice is ending," he declared, vowing "the wave of the Islamic revolution will soon strike the whole world."

He has certainly had an impact: on the nuclear case, he has positioned himself alongside other entrenched hardliners who resist international demands to halt uranium enrichment activity -- which Iran says it wants to use to make reactor fuel and not weapons.

In April, he announced that Iran had "joined the world's nuclear club" by managing to enrich uranium, and has since shrugged off any threat of US military action.

"The Iranian people are generally very supportive of the nuclear programme," said the newspaper editor, who also preferred not to be named.

"Ahmadinejad has been drumming up national pride, and this is working. Even many Iranians who are hostile to him are in favour of the nuclear programme -- and this means the regime is extremely confident in its hardline position."