Washington shrugged off the landslide victory of conservative Tehran mayor Mahmood Ahmadinejad, saying the polls were "flawed from their inception" with a field handpicked by an Islamic clergy that controls everything.

The State Department insisted Iran was "out of step" with pro-democracy sentiment sweeping the region, while the White House vowed to support "those who call for greater freedom for the Iranian people."

But for all their public rhetoric, the Americans struggled to decipher the meaning of Ahmadinejad's runoff triumph Friday over the more-pragmatic former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

"The real question for us is whether these elections will result in any actual change in policy in Iran. We will just have to wait and see," a State Department official told AFP.

Washington, which has no virtually no ties with Iran, has maintained a barrage of criticism of the Islamic republic that President George W. Bush famously labeled part of an "axis of evil."

Top of the list has been Tehran's suspected efforts to develop nuclear arms. For the Americans, perhaps the most worrisome aspect of the election could be its impact on efforts to wean Iran off its ambitions.

Analysts in Tehran said Rafsanjani was more amenable to striking a deal with European negotiators, and Ahmadinejad's crushing win could embolden the Islamic clergy to take a much tougher stance.

But the United States insisted that if onetime US bete noire Moamer Kadhafi could renounce Libya's attempts to develop weapons of mass destruction, nothing stopped the Iranians from coming around, as well.

"We will judge the regime by its actions," State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said after the results from Iran were known. But she added that the conduct of elections did not bode well.

"We remain skeptical that the Iranian regime is interested in addressing either the legitimate desires of its own people, or the concerns of the broader international community," Moore said.

The United States sees Iran as the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and has repeatedly voiced fears that Tehran could be playing a destabilizing role in Iraq and other regional states.

In recent months, the Bush administration has stepped up its attacks on the mullahs' domestic policies, exhorting the Iranian people to rise up in defense of their rights and stopping short of calling for outright regime change.

But the election proved something of a surprise to US officials, who had not hidden their hopes for a low turnout to signal a disavowal of the process by Iranian voters.

With the Iranians reporting 62 percent of the electorate casting ballots in the first round and nearly 60 percent in the second, the turnout rivaled anything seen in US elections since the 1960s.

The outcome could also be troubling for a US government championing unfettered democracy around the world and publicly proclaiming its readiness to accept whatever comes from a free and fair ballot.

Ahmadinejad's victory followed similar successes by other hardline Islamic forces in the Middle East, such as the militant groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.

US officials said they had no immediate plans to issue a congratulations or acknowledgement of Ahmadinejad. Here again, the Americans appeared to be somewhat out of sync with other countries, even allies.

Russia called the result an "expression of the will of the Iranian people." Pakistan, a key player in the US-led war on terror, welcomed Ahmadinejad's victory, and France archly referred to him as the "newly elected" president.

US officials said it was an open question what would be the long-term impact of the election and whether it would encourage the Iranians to harden their policies even further.

But as one added: "It can't get much worse."

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