Tehran  - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday sought parliamentary approval for his 21-member cabinet, which includes 14 new ministers, three of them women, ISNA news agency reported.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, was among five ministers who kept their posts.

The three women are former parliamentarians Marzieh Vahid- Dastjerdi and Fatemeh Ajorlou, who are to head the ministries of health and social welfare respectively, as well as Susan Keshavarz, who was promoted from deputy to minister of education.

The oil ministry is to get a new head, with former commerce minister Massoud Mir-Kazemi taking care of the country's key industrial ministry.

For the intelligence ministry, the president appointed his close clerical ally Heydar Moslehi.

Parliament is to start debating the new appointees on August 30.

Ahmadinejad's June 12 re-election is still highly disputed owing to alleged rigging, which led to mass protests, followed by mass arrests, the death of more than 20 protesters and trials against more than 100 government opponents on charges of espionage.

Pparliament has blamed the president for failing to consult the legislators in advance over his choice of ministers.

Deputies further called on the president to give priority to the technical and not ideological qualification of the ministers as was the case with the previous government.

Parliament Vice-Speaker Mohammad-Reza Bahonar predicted that at least five of the proposed ministers would be rejected.

Ahmadinejad dismissed the criticisms and defended his new cabinet in a live interview with state television.

"The parliament has 290 deputies? How can you consult with all of them and come to an agreement? The ministers should harmonize with the president not the MPs," the president said.

He termed his cabinet as very qualified and with a higher level of education than the previous government.

"Cabinet is like a sports team which needs a new tactic depending on who you play against," the president said.

"A government should have a team spirit and this selection has this collective spirit and will definitely act in accordance with the country's needs," Ahmadinejad added.

Referring to the three women appointees, the president said they were chosen not because of their sex but for their professional qualifications.

"We have had thorough evaluations before selecting the ministers, including the female ministers," he said.

There are talks within political circles that the choice of the three women was just a move by Ahmadinejad to get away from his image as hardliner.

"I am of the opinion that women could even be better ministers than men and we have missed their potentials in the government in the last 30 years," Ahmadinejad said. (dpa)