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(CNN) -- Iran's vital oil industry appears to be the latest front in a power struggle between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei -- a fight that overseas analysts say the colorful president appears to be losing.

Ahmadinejad is trying to retain control of Iran's Oil Ministry despite a ruling by the country's top judicial body that he can't serve as its acting chief. It's the latest in a series of unusually public squabbles between Ahmadinejad and allies of Khamenei, the Islamic republic's clerical leader, in recent weeks.