Iran Election: Moderate Cleric In Lead

Moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani is holding a comfortable lead in Iran's presidential election based on early results, figures released by the country's interior ministry show.

Mr Rouhani - one of six candidates approved by the Guardian Council to run in the election - has a share of just over 50% of the vote, with nearly 17m out of 28m votes counted.

It gives the former nuclear negotiator an early wide margin over Tehran Mayor Mohammad Ghalibaf, former military commander Mohsen Rezaie and chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. The other two candidates were further back.

The winning candidate needs to get more than 50% of the vote to avoid a second-round run-off in a week's time.

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