Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's opponents took a lead in municipal elections in Tehran, suggesting he may be challenged at the next presidential poll by politicians seeking a more liberal economy and a less confrontational approach to the U.S.

Backers of Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Bagher Qalibaf, a rival of Ahmadinejad at the June 2005 presidential election, are heading the race for the City Council, according to a count representing about a third of ballots cast, state television reported today.

Elections for Iran's municipalities and a parallel poll for the country's most influential religious body, the Assembly of Experts, were held Dec. 15. The results will be the first barometer of Ahmadinejad's authority since he won the presidency.

The significance of the Tehran municipal contest transcends the local scale. Ahmadinejad was elected mayor after his allies took hold of Tehran in the 2003 municipal elections, and he used the post as a springboard for his rise to the presidency. Under the constitution, Ahmadinejad can serve one more term as president, with the next presidential election scheduled for 2009. A parliamentary poll is due in 2008.

In the contest for the 15 seats on Tehran City Council, supporters of Qalibaf were on course to take eight, based on the partial count. Four seats were heading to candidates from a coalition of modernizing ``reformists,'' including three of former president Mohammad Khatami's ministers.

Ahmadinejad's sister, Parvin, who is running on a list titled ``the Pleasant Scent of Service,'' ranked 10th from 15 candidates. Another candidate from the same list was in 14th position.

Assembly of Experts

Counts are ongoing for the country's councils and more definitive figures may be given by Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi at a news conference in Tehran tomorrow. Reformists claimed they had made major gains and were controlling over 250 town or city councils, Agence France-Presse reported.

More than 233,000 candidates ran for more than 113,000 council seats in cities, towns and villages across Iran, the Associated Press said. Local councils elect city mayors and approve community budgets and planning projects.

Overall turnout for both elections across the country was about 60 percent, with some 46 million eligible voters from a population of around 70 million.

In the contest for the Assembly of Experts, former president Ali Akbar Hasehmi Rafsanjani, beaten by Ahmadinejad in last year's presidential race, was re-elected with 1.56 million votes, well ahead of the 880,000 votes garnered by Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor, Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesba Yazdi, who also won re-election.

Anti-U.S. Stance

The Assembly of Experts nominates the country's highest authority, the supreme leader, a post held now by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Chosen for life, the supreme leader can be replaced should the 86 top Islamic theologians who form the Assembly consider he has failed to fulfill his duties.

The president, on a visit today to the northwestern Kermanshah province, didn't mention early results from the elections, instead concentrating on local issues and Iran's nuclear program.

If Ahmadinejad's supporters fail to win Tehran it will be a ``big blow, and a strong endorsement for the centralists,'' Ali Ansari, reader in Middle Eastern politics at St. Andrews University, Scotland, said in a phone interview yesterday. He was referring to Iranian politicians seeking economic liberalization and a less confrontational stance toward the U.S. and its allies.

Militias, Nuclear Program

Ahmadinejad, pronounced ah-ma-deen-ah-ZHAD, was elected president after a campaign in which he vowed to use his country's oil wealth to improve the lives of ordinary people. His administration has been marked by a hardening of the Islamic Republic's anti-U.S. stance and he has prompted international condemnation with speeches in which he has reiterated Iran's official opposition to Israel's existence, calling for the Jewish state to be ``wiped off the map.''

The U.S. accuses Iran of trying to interfere in the politics of neighboring Iraq by supporting Shiite Muslim militias, of financing and arming Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon, and seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran, while maintaining its position as the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has defied United Nations demands to suspend its atomic program, saying it's needed to generate electricity. Ahmadinejad has promoted the nuclear project as an important part of his policy program.

Sanctions Vote

U.S. President George W. Bush's administration said the preliminary results from the elections represented a setback for Ahmadinejad. ``It would seem that they're not the results that President Ahmadinejad would have hoped for,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters yesterday.

The U.S., which is pressing the United Nations Security Council to punish the Islamic Republic over the nuclear program, said yesterday that the Council will vote within days on whether to impose sanctions. Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, told Cable News Network that sanctions will be passed against Iran ``in the next several days.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Ladane Nasseri in Tehran at lnasseri@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 19, 2006 10:30 EST