Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was born in Garmsar, near Tehran, on October 28, 1956, the son of a blacksmith.

After taking Iran’s national university entrance exam he landed a place at the prestigious Iran University of Science and Technology achieving 132nd position out of 400,000 entrants in 1976. He joined the Revolutionary Guards voluntarily after the revolution, and he is also reported to have served in covert operations during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. It has also been bought into question whether he was present at the hostage taking of fifty-two Americans, during the presidency of Jimmy Carter, and in the months following 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Both Ahmadinejad and his political opponents have denied his involvement.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a relatively obscure political figure until his election in 2005. Since coming to power Ahmadinejad has increased Iran’s nuclear power program which has met with condemnation from America, The European Union, and most major Western Governments.

On May 8, 2006, U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice dismissed a letter sent to the National Security Council as a negotiating ploy and publicity stunt that did not address U.S. concerns about Iran's nuclear program. In mid 2006, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad invited President George W Bush to a debate at the United Nation General Assembly, which included Kofi Annan, and was to take place on the September 19, 2006. Bush’s White House spokesman, Tony Snow, announced, "There's not going to be a steel-cage grudge match between the President and Ahmadinejad."

Once again in 2006 his remarks, calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and describing the Holocaust as a "myth" met with massive disapproval from Canada's then prime minister Paul Martin, Egypt, Turkish, and Palestinian leaders. In recent months Ahmadinejad has allied himself with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Russia’s Vladimer Putin in his discussions on his country's escalating nuclear policies.

Both Russia and China, having strong business interests in Iran, have resisted the sanctions preferred by other Western governments. It has long been suspected that Ahmadinejad’s Iran is supplying aide to Iraq in the war against the U.S. and Secretary Robert Gates said there is growing evidence of Iranian involvement.

On September 25, 2006 Ahmadinejad was featured on the cover of Time magazine.

He is married with two sons and one daughter.

YUDDY