Leading candidates in Iran's presidential race

The following are potential front-runners in Iran's June 14 presidential election to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The list of candidates will be announced next week after vetting by Iran's ruling clerics:

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AKBAR HASHEMI RAFSANJANI: Served as president from 1989-97 and lost a comeback bid to Ahmadinejad in 2005. Rafsanjani is a fierce critic of Ahmadinejad and could become the main candidate for reformists and liberal-leaning voters. He also lost standing among the ruling clerics for publicly criticizing the crackdowns after Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009. Rafsanjani, 78, is currently head of the Expediency Council, an advisory body that mediates disputes between the parliament and the Guardian Council, the group that vets candidates for the presidency and parliament. He is conservative, but also seen as pragmatic and willing to cut deals with other factions. In the past, he has urged for better ties with the U.S.

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ALI AKBAR VELAYATI: Top adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on international affairs. Velayati, 67, served as foreign minister during the 1980-88 war with Iraq and into the 1990s. He is a physician and runs a hospital in north Tehran. He was among the suspects named by Argentina in a 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.

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MOHAMMAD BAGHER QALIBAF: Tehran mayor and former commander of the Revolutionary Guard during the Iran-Iraq war. Qalibaf, 51, is a pilot who enjoys good relations with Khamenei.

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HASAN ROWHANI: A former nuclear negotiator and Khamenei's representative at the Supreme National Security Council, which also handles the nuclear dossier. Rowhani, 64, is a British-educated cleric. It is possible Rowhani could drop out of the race and throw his support behind Rafsanjani.

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ESFANDIAR RAHIM MASHAEI: A top adviser to Ahmadinejad. His candidacy is being heavily promoted by Ahmadinejad, but he will face serious hurdles during the vetting by the Guardian Council, which must approve all candidates. Mashaei, 52, was denounced as a leader of a "deviant current" in Ahmadinejad's political showdown with Khamenei. Mashaei's daughter is married to Ahmadinejad's son.

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MOHSEN REZAEI: Former chief commander of the Revolutionary Guard. Rezaei, 58, ran for president in 2009, but finished fourth. He is currently the secretary of the Expediency Council, of which Rafsanjani is chief and which mediates between the parliament and Guardian Council.

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ADB'S Kuroda leading candidate to be next BOJ governor: Asahi

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda is the leading candidate to be the government's nominee for the Bank of Japan governorship, the Asahi newspaper reported, which would signal a shift toward more aggressive monetary easing.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make a final decision soon, in consultation with Finance Minister Taro Aso, and submit the government's nominee for parliamentary approval next week, the paper said on Saturday.

Kuroda, Japan's former top financial diplomat, has been regarded as among the key candidates to succeed incumbent BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa, who leaves the central bank with his two deputies on March 19 after a five-year term.

Former top financial bureaucrat Toshiro Muto and Kazumasa Iwata, a former government economist and deputy BOJ governor, have also been floated as strong candidates to be the next BOJ head.

Kuroda is now leading the race, Asahi cited Finance Ministry officials and senior government officials as saying.

Abe, now in Washington, said he planned to seek the backing of a junior coalition partner and opposition parties over the nomination of a new BOJ governor on his return from his U.S. trip on Sunday.

The nomination of the next BOJ governor must be approved by both houses of parliament. Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party lacks a majority in the upper house and needs support from opposition parties to get the nomination passed.

As Japan's top financial diplomat from 1999 to 2003, Kuroda aggressively intervened in the exchange-rate market to weaken the yen to support the country's export-reliant economy.

He has also been a vocal advocate of more aggressive monetary easing, a view in line with that of Abe, making him a strong candidate to head the BOJ.

If Kuroda were to be chosen as next BOJ governor, he would be cutting short his term as head of the ADB, which could weaken Japan's standing as the country that traditionally provides the head of the organization established in 1966.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Jon Hemming and Peter Cooney)

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