Started at nine in the morning in 37.000 polling stations, voting was extended three times to last until midnight local time, due to an "overwhelming turnout", the Interior Ministry said.

Though the final outcome is not expected until at least Sunday, but an exit poll conducted by the official news agency IRNA indicated Mr. Khatami was heading for a clear-cut sweep, as he did in 1997.

Next to him was former Labour Minister Ahmad Tavakkoli, who was reported to have received slightly less than 7 per cent, followed by others who got less then five per cent of the votes cast by some eighty per cent of the total electorate.

Casting his vote, the country’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenehe'i said, "every vote placed in the ballot box is a yes to the Islamic Republic, to Islam and a slap to the enemies".

For his part, Khatami called on "all forces in our society to co-operate so that the historic aspirations of the Iranian people would be fulfilled."

"Wherever they are, Iranians are citizens of our country, and the government is accountable to them", he repeated, adding: "We must create an environment in which everyone feels respected", he said after voting.

Eyewitness said long queues of voters were seen in some areas of the capital, made mostly of young and first time voters, majority of them women.

No major incident was reported, as 130.000 policemen, revolutionary guards and soldiers were deployed throughout the nation to prevent any disturbances.

But Secretary of the leader-appointed and controlled Council of Guardians, the hard-line Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said his office had received reports of electoral irregularities in certain constituencies, which he did not identified.

He told the state television that his office had received reports about after-hours campaigning for certain candidates during the election and urged a halt to it.

However, and despite calls from several foreign-based Iranian opposition groups, including some Monarchist and leftists, participation was also high outside Iran, particularly in the United States, where the authorities had prepared twenty polling stations, most of them in California, home of between 500.000 to 800.000 Iranian expatriates, a majority of them supporting Mr. Khatami.

Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi criticised Friday foreign governments for allowing dissident Iranians to demonstrate against the Islamic Republic.

With Mr. Khatami almost re-elected for another four years, the question all political analysts and pundits have is that what can he do against the powerful conservatives who control all key and strategic positions, including the notorious security services, the armed forces, the Judiciary, the clerical corps, the bazaar and the public media, as well as directing the regime’s foreign policy and economy.

All senior tenors of the regime also pledged for "calm after the storm" and unity among all ruling factions.

"Today the rivalry ends, and I say to everyone that they must put their rivalries aside, and help the next president solve the problems of the country", Ayatollah Khameneh’i said.

The Head of the State Expediency Council Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani said all political groups should share the burden of the responsibility to solve economic and unemployment problem in the country during the office of the new president.

"We expect the thorny discrepancies of election days will end after the (presidential) polls and (all political groups) will take up a line of reconciliation and coordination," the former president said at his second sermon at the Friday congregational prayers.

"All forces in our society must co-operate so that the historic aspirations of the Iranian people would be fulfilled", Hojjatoleslam Khatami echoed.

"Iran, a country of 63 million, is grappling with an inflation estimated at 19.9 percent in 2000 while some 16 percent of its population remain unemployed amid a rise in drug abuse and other crimes", the agency observed.

According to IRNA, the country's foreign debts are put at 9.0 billion dollars. Some 80 percent of Iran's economy is dependent on petrodollars, making the country vulnerable to economic instability and social perturbation due to oil price fluctuations.

More than 42 million Iranians aged 15 and over are eligible to vote, six million more than in 1997. The highest percentage of voting was in the last elections, where more than 83% of the voters cast ballots and the lowest ever was in the sixth elections, with some 50% per cent.