NEWSMAKER - Ahmadinejad, the man who never fails to surprise

EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to film or take pictures in Tehran. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks to members of parliament during his swearing-in ceremony in Tehran August 5, 2009.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Vilified by the West for his hardline policies and spurned by many at home for an election that opponents called "a dangerous charade", Mahmoud Ahmadinejad still seems able to wrongfoot his enemies and supporters alike.

The main ace that Ahmadinejad, 53, has held during his political career is that his opponents have consistently underestimated him, which has given him more space to consolidate his grip on power.

His re-election to a second term as president, which began on Wednesday, did not come without a price. A political struggle, the worst in 30 years, has convulsed Iran since the June 12 vote.

The results, which leading reformists and moderate defeated candidates Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi said were rigged to ensure victory for Ahmadinejad, led to violent protests and a deep rift within Iran's clerical and political elite.

It was not the first time Ahmadinejad, a blacksmith's son and former Revolutionary Guard, had defied predictions.

He was an unknown figure when he was appointed mayor of Tehran in 2003, and was not even prominent when he defeated powerful former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a run-off vote in the 2005 presidential vote.

In his first term in office, Ahmadinejad enraged the international community with his fierce rhetoric against the United States and Israel, his defiant stand on Iran's nuclear programme, and persistent questioning of the Holocaust.

AGGRESSIVE APPROACH?

Ahmadinejad on Monday accused some Western countries of being "selfish and meddlesome" over the election, signalling a more aggressive approach towards the West in his second term.

When he was mayor of Tehran, he clamped down on social freedoms and curtailed many of the reforms introduced by the moderate reformists who had run the city before him.

Ahmadinejad, a small man who wears open-necked shirts and a windbreaker jacket, plays on his modest origins and lifestyle.

Born in the farming village of Aradan, 100 km (60 miles) southeast of Tehran, he moved to the capital with his family in his early childhood. He studied engineering and has alternated between teaching and administrative posts.

His campaign focused on poverty, social justice and the re-distribution of wealth inside Iran. He had promised to put oil wealth on the table of every family in a nation of over 70 million people, distributing loans, money and other help for local projects on his frequent provincial tours.

His opponents and many of his conservative backers have criticised him over his handling of an oil exporting economy which enjoyed a surge in petrodollar revenues on his watch -- a boom which critics say Ahmadinejad squandered.

But the man who enjoys the full backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei has a bumpy road ahead of him.

The power struggle can only hamper the leadership's ability to tackle the Islamic Republic's economic problems, as well as the struggle over its nuclear programme, which the West suspects has military aims, not civilian ones as Tehran insists.

After endorsing Ahmadinejad's second term on Monday, Khamenei praised him as "courageous, wise and hard-working". But he advised him to listen to his critics as well.

In a speech after taking the oath, Ahmadinejad said the clerical establishment was strong enough to withstand domestic and international challenges it may face to its authority.

Fear, however, is rife that Ahmadinejead will use his new four-year term to crack down even more on dissent.

An Ahmadinejad ally told Reuters last year that he was a vengeful person, who hardly forgives his critics. He was quoted by some websites as saying that "After the oath, we will teach them (the opposition) a lesson".