Russia, China congratulate Ahmadinejad on vote win

By Natalya Shurmina and Guy Faulconbridge

YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Russia and China congratulated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his controversial re-election as he attended a summit in Russia on Tuesday despite mass protests against the result at home.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao both met Ahmadinejad, although the meeting with Medvedev was only brief because Ahmadinejad had travelled to the summit in the city of Yekaterinburg a day late.

Western powers have avoided recognising Ahmadinejad's overwhelming win, which has brought tens of thousands onto the streets to allege vote-rigging and back the demand of defeated moderate rival Mirhossein Mousavi that the election be rerun.

Ahmadinejad used the platform of a televised plenary session of the summit to attack the United States in a speech, but made no mention of last Friday's election or the protests.

Iran has observer status at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which groups Russia, China and four ex-Soviet Central Asian states.

"The heads of SCO member states congratulated Ahmadinejad on his re-election," Kremlin spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said.

Ahmadinejad and Medvedev joked and smiled for television cameras, but Timakova said their meeting had been very short: "They did not even sit down."

A brief report from China's official Xinhua news agency also said Hu and Ahmadinejad "exchanged views on bilateral relations and issues of common concern" on the sidelines of the summit.