By Zahra Hosseinian and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Conservatives won a majority in Iran'sparliamentary vote, state television said on Sunday, but thenew assembly may still give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad atougher time ahead of next year's presidential election.
Western powers embroiled in a deepening standoff withTehran over its disputed nuclear plans condemned Friday'selection as unfair after many reformist politicians, thehardline president's staunchest critics, were barred fromrunning.
But even though pro-reformers will only have a minority inthe new legislature of world's fourth-largest oil-producer,analysts say they could team up with more moderateconservatives who have voiced concern about Ahmadinejad'seconomic policies blamed for surging inflation.
State-owned Press TV said the conservatives, who callthemselves "principlists" for loyalty to the Islamic Republic'sideals, have taken at least 163 seats in the 290-memberassembly against 40 for the reformists so far.
The English-language satellite channel, citing the InteriorMinistry, said most votes had been counted. Some seats would goto run-offs and 47 winners were classified as independents. Theconservatives also controlled the outgoing parliament.
Iranian officials have hailed the election as a victoryover the United States, the Islamic Republic's arch-foe, whichon the day of voting said the result was "cooked".
"More than 70 percent of parliament seats belong toprinciplists," Shahabeddin Sadr, projected to win a seat forthe conservatives in Tehran, told Reuters. "It is a greathonour that people put their trust in us again."
But the European Union, whose main members agree with U.S.suspicions that Iran is making nuclear weapons, said theelection was "neither fair nor free".
The Guardian Council, a body of clerics and jurists, barredmany reformists when it screened potential candidates oncriteria such as commitment to Islam and the clerical system.
The 27-nation EU "expresses its deep regret anddisappointment that over a third of prospective candidates wereprevented from standing in this year's parliamentaryelections", the bloc's presidency said in a statement issued inBrussels.
"VICTORIOUS"
Iran's Interior Ministry, which supervised the vote, hassaid a final nationwide tally might not come out until Monday.
But even if the conservatives won the election, analystssaid divisions among politicians ranging from radical backersof Ahmadinejad to his more pragmatic critics could widen asthey jockey for position before the 2009 presidential race.
Reformists, who seek political and social change, and someconservatives have accused the president of stoking inflation,now at more than 19 percent, by lavishly spending Iran'swindfall oil revenues on subsidies, loans and handouts.
"You could have a possibility of some of the conservativesmaking a coalition with the reformists and making it difficultfor the president to pass his bills," one Iranian analyst said.
Pro-reform politicians have also rebuked Ahmadinejad forspeeches that have kept Iran on a collision course with theUnited Nations over Tehran's nuclear programme.
However, Ahmadinejad has won public backing from Iran's topauthority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who hasendorsed his handling of the nuclear row.
Iran's leaders had called for a high turnout as a show ofdefiance for its "enemies" in the West: "The U.S. was the realloser and it was the Iranian people ... who emergedvictorious," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseinisaid.
Washington has led international efforts to penalise Iranfor failing to allay suspicions that it is seeking nuclearweapons. Tehran says its nuclear programme is purely civilian.
(Additional reporting by Zahra Hosseinian, Parisa Hafeziand Edmund Blair in Tehran, Mark John in Brussels; Writing byFredrik Dahl; Editing by Caroline Drees)
