Ahmadinejad delays Russia visit after election

By Guy Faulconbridge and Oleg Shchedrov

YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delayed attending a regional security summit in Russia on Monday after protests against his contested re-election.

Ahmadinejad has faced demonstrations and clashes in the streets since Saturday, when officials announced his landslide victory in the election on Friday against a moderate opponent.

He had been due to arrive in Russia on Monday for separate meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), where Iran has observer status.

"The president will definitely not come today," said a diplomatic source at the Iranian embassy who asked not to be named. The source said it was unclear why the visit had been delayed but added that Ahmadinejad would arrive on Tuesday.

A Russian official who also asked not to be named said the visit had been delayed until Tuesday and added that Ahmadinejad still planned to speak to reporters. The Kremlin declined immediate comment.

The president of Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil producer, has often stolen the limelight at major conferences, including an SCO meeting in Shanghai in 2006 that was dominated by news about Tehran's nuclear programme.

The SCO groups Russia and China and four ex-Soviet Central Asia republics.

The leaders of India and Pakistan plan to meet on the sidelines of the summit in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, their first such meeting since last November's attack on Mumbai, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told APP.