"I have not yet decided and I am reviewing the issues... it depends on many conditions," the mid-ranking cleric, seen as a pragmatic conservative, told the official news agency IRNA.

"One of the issues I would like to know before applying for candidacy is the list of the other candidates," he said, adding he had already received numerous calls to stand in the poll scheduled for May 2005.

Rowhani, 56, currently heads Iran's Supreme National Security Council. He has also been responsible for international negotiations centered on concerns the country is seeking nuclear weapons, during which he has steered a course of cooperation with the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency.

Several prominent conservative politicians have already entered the race to replace incumbent reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who has served two consecutive terms as president and is barred by the constitution from standing again.

Long-serving former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, now a top advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has announced he intends to stand for president, as has Mohsen Rezai, a former head of the Revolutionary Guards and Ali Larijani, the longtime boss of Iran's state broadcast media.

Influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has also been openly mulling a comeback as president but has yet to declare his intentions.

On the reformist side, former higher education minister Mostafa Moin has been nominated as the candidate of the Islamic republic's main reform party, the Participation Front (IIPF), while incumbent Vice President Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh has also stepped in.

Another potential reformist candidate, former parliament speaker Mehdi Karoubi, has yet to state whether he will stand.

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