TEHRAN, Feb 21: Partial results from Iran's disputed parliamentary election showed conservatives hostile to President Mohammad Khatami's reforms cruising to an expected victory on Saturday.

Interior Ministry figures showed conservatives won 133 of the first 194 provincial seats declared, deputy parliament speaker Behzad Nabavi said. A total of 289 seats were at stake.

Reformists won 37, independents 17 and five were reserved for Iran's religious minorities - Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians. In 31 districts where no candidate polled more than 25 percent, there will be a run-off later.

There was not one woman among the first 194 lawmakers elected. There were 13 in the outgoing parliament.

Reformists branded the election rigged and many boycotted it after the unelected hardline Guardian Council banned 2,500 mainly reformist candidates, including 80 sitting lawmakers, prompting Washington to say the vote was neither free nor fair.

A conservative majority could spell an end to President Khatami's seven-year experiment in allowing greater freedom of speech and loosening cultural and social restrictions, a drive that hardliners have tried to obstruct at every turn.

But conservative commentator Amir Mohebian, a policy adviser to Iran's religious leaders, suggested the victors would use a velvet glove rather than an iron fist.

The new majority would usher in a second phase of reforms, implemented more effectively, he said, as attempts to impose crackdown would only generate a backlash.-Reuters