News

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected parliament's subsidies law on Monday and demanded double the cuts in food and fuel supports, in a rebuke to an assembly dominated by his erstwhile conservative allies.

He was tacitly supported by the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who urged parliament to work with the government to reach a compromise.

The parliament approved $20 billion in cuts, or just half of the savings demanded by Ahmadinejad's government, in January with lawmakers saying they feared the full $40 billion in cuts would have prompted a 50 percent plus surge in inflation.