As campaigning intensified ahead of Friday's vote, the leading cleric also removed his turban, had a haircut and watched a football match in a slick video designed to promote his sensitive, human side and lure last-minute support.

The run-up to the poll, which will herald an end to the difficult reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami, also saw more bomb attacks -- with new blasts reported to have shaken the southeastern city of Zahedan.

Khatami advised voters to be sceptical of promises of more freedoms -- a clear snipe at the campaigns of religious hardliners busy reinventing themselves as slick moderates.

Informal opinion polls are signalling that none of the eight candidates will be able to secure the more than 50 percent of the vote needed to win on June 17. In that case the top two would face a run-off on July 1.

Seen as trailing Rafsanjani in the number-two position is either former police chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, a uniformed hardliner-turned smiling casual technocrat, and leftist-reformist Mostafa Moin.

The others in the race are hardliners Mohsen Rezai, Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and former state television boss Ali Larijani, and reformists Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh and Mehdi Karoubi.

But Rafsanjani, who has already served as president from 1989-1997 and who is presenting himself as a moderate with the clout to get things done, received a fresh boost on Tuesday.

The head of Iran's nuclear energy agency, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, said the cleric was "the only person capable of solving" Iran's nuclear stand-off with the international community.

Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanghaneh also threw his weight behind Rafsanjani by describing him as a "valued leader".

Throughout his campaign, Rafsanjani has been seizing the political centre and driving the debate on key issues, including the need to improve relations with the United States -- even though he has stuck by his demand the Washington take the first step and unfreeze billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets.

In his campaign film, the 70-year-old ayatollah also went out of his way to portray himself as an ordinary man in touch with Iran's youthful population rather than a lofty cleric.

The film was directed by Kamal Tabrizi, best known for poking fun at the Islamic republic's turbaned establishment in last year thief-cum-cleric smash comedy "Marmoulak" ("The Lizard").

The half-hour video offered an unprecedented glimpse into Rafsanjani's private side, showing him praying at home, chatting with his family and, unusually for a cleric, without his turban. One sequence shows him having his handsome full and straight silver hair cut by a fast-clipping barber.

While director Tabrizi is best known for comedy, the theme of Rafsanjani film drew heavily on the theme of "The Lizard" -- showing that in order to survive, Iran's powerful Shiite clergy must have the common touch.

Qalibaf and Moin also held large rallies on Tuesday. Campaigning has to end on Thursday morning.

Analysts believe a surprise is possible on Friday, given that the spread of candidates and high-profile campaigning could bring out more voters than previously predicted.

The final days before the vote featured more bomb blasts, albeit minor attacks. Several people were lightly wounded in three blasts overnight Monday in the southeastern city of Zahedan, the official IRNA news agency said.

Up to 10 people were killed in separate, larger attacks in the ethnic Arab-dominated city of Ahvaz and the capital Tehran on Sunday.

Judicial spokesman Jamal Karimi Rad told AFP that six suspects had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Ahvaz attacks and one over the Tehran blasts.

Khatami played down earlier allegations of possible US or British involvement, saying "we haven't discovered foreign footprints".

"What happened was a string of blind acts. At the moment good clues have been found, people have been arrested. We have to investigate," he said.

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