By Jay Deshmukh

TEHRAN, Jun 09, 2009 (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is seeking re-election on Friday, has earned worldwide notoriety with his hardline rhetoric but still commands strong loyalty among swathes of Iran's poor.

His repeated diatribes about Israel and the Holocaust have made him a bogeyman for the West and have drawn criticism even from some fellow conservatives at home for damaging Iran's international standing.

But for many poorer Iranians, the blacksmith's son who rose to the presidency is still lionised as a devout, hardworking man of the people, a reputation he cultivated during his first four-year term with big spending programmes and repeated tours of the countryside.

Ahmadinejad hit the headlines soon after his upset election victory in 2005 by saying that Israel was doomed to be "wiped off the map" and that the Holocaust was a "myth."

He has since further antagonised the West by aggressively championing Iran's nuclear programme and rejecting the slightest concession to allay suspicions that it is cover for a drive for an atomic bomb.

Iran's drive to master the nuclear fuel cycle, which has cost it three sets of UN sanctions, is a "train without brakes and no reverse gear," he has repeatedly insisted.

Aged 52 and married with two sons and one daughter, Ahmadinejad presents himself as an ordinary man -- normally casually dressed in just a shirt and jacket in contrast to the black robes of Iran's clerical leaders.

Soon after becoming president, he revealed he owned an old Peugeot car and had two bank accounts, one of which was empty and the other was used for his salary from his previous job as a university professor.

He also ended the practice of receiving foreign dignitaries such as heads of state in the posh palace of the former shah in northern Tehran by welcoming them at the presidential office instead.

Claiming to be a good cook who can prepare "delicious" Iranian dishes, Ahmadinejad has said he regrets not spending enough time at home. He is reportedly often seen in the office at 5:30 am and working until midnight.

Born on October 28, 1956 in a poor village in Semnan province outside Tehran, Ahmadinejad moved to the capital at an early age and earned a PhD in traffic management.

An Islamist student -- although speculation he was involved in the 444-day US embassy siege soon after the 1979 Islamic revolution is denied -- he rose to become governor of northern Ardebil province and then Tehran mayor.

His upset election victory four years ago saw him trounce much better known rivals, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani whom he attacked in a campaign debate last week saying his sons had received financial privileges.

A firebrand orator, Ahmadinejad pursued hectic speaking schedules around the country throughout his first term in office, earning him the tag of "Marco Polo" from pro-reform cleric Ali Akbar Mohtashami-pour.

While rivals call him a "loose cannon" for his bombastic rhetoric, teenage supporter Mehdi Mahmoudi from a lower middle class neighbourhood of Islamshahr, a city of migrant workers, says he "helps the poor."

"If there are two people in trouble, he will first help the one who is in a real bad situation."

Critics say Ahmadinejad's expansionary economic policies have done little to reduce unemployment or poverty and have merely stoked inflation, but the president is promising more of the same if he is re-elected.

The incumbent has not had an easy ride in his campaign for a second term, with three challengers squaring off with him in often fiery television debates.

In the debate with his leading rival Mir Hossein Mousavi, he raised eyebrows by criticising the high-profile campaign role adopted by Mousavi's academic wife, Zahra Rahnavard, and even questioning her educational qualifications.

"That was a cheap shot," said Naseem, a young voter. Rahnavard has threatened to sue him.

In the face of the diplomatic overtures to Tehran made by the new US administration of Barack Obama, Ahmadinejad has sent mixed messages.

On the one hand, he has said that Iran is ready for talks if they are based on "mutual respect" and if Washington changes its policies.

But at the same time he has kept up his controversial rhetoric, drawing a new chorus of international criticism last week by calling the Holocaust a "big deception."

jds/kir

Copyright AFP 2009.