Facing the world's press after his landslide presidential victory on Friday, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad yesterday signalled the end of the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami by echoing Mr Khatami's most cherished phrases. "Moderation will be my policy. This will be a government of religious democracy."

The 49-year-old blacksmith's son fought the election as a "fundamentalist" wanting a return to the social egalitarianism of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.