Iran vote: Khamenei loyalists appear to do well

No independent observers were on hand to monitor the voting or check the official turnout figures. An unelected Guardian Council, which vets all candidates, barred 35 sitting MPs from seeking reelection and nearly 2,000 other would-be candidates.

The vote took place without the two main opposition leaders. Mirhossein Mousaviand Mehdi Karoubi, who ran for president in 2009, have been under house arrest for more than a year.

Beating war drums

Iran has been hard hit by Western sanctions over its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear activity and be transparent with U.N. nuclear inspectors. Israel, whose leader meets President Obama on Monday, has talked of war.

Obama also said military action was among the options to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. "As president of the United States, I don't bluff," he told Atlantic Magazine. But he also argued against a preemptive Israeli strike.

The dispute over Iran's uranium enrichment program, which Tehran says is purely peaceful, barely featured in an election dominated by debates over soaring prices and scarce jobs.

The vote will have scant impact on Iran's foreign or nuclear policies, in which Khamenei already has the final say, but could strengthen the Supreme Leader's hand before a presidential vote next year. Ahmadinejad cannot run for a third term.

The outgoing parliament has summoned him to answer questions next week about his handling of the economy in unprecedented hearings that could hamstring him for the rest of his term.

But the combative Ahmadinejad may try to turn the tables on his critics, some of whom say he has inflicted higher inflation on Iranians by slashing food and fuel subsidies and replacing them with cash handouts of about $38 a month per person.

Global oil prices have spiked to 10-month highs on tensions between the West and Iran, OPEC's second biggest crude producer.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday global powers would be falling into a trap if they pursued talks with Iran, saying Tehran would use dialogue to deceive the world and buy time to advance its nuclear programme.

Netanyahu will press Obama, who is facing a presidential election in November, to stress publicly the nuclear "red lines" that Iran must not cross, Israeli officials say.

(Additional reporting by Zahra Hosseinian and Ramin Mostafavi in Tehran, Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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