Tehran  - Iran's economy will be able to cope oil prices going even as low as five dollars per barrel, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday.

"Our economy is internally-oriented and therefore we can even manage to run the country with low oil prices, even if they go down to eight or five dollars (per barrel)," Ahmadinejad claimed while visiting the Tehran press fair.

Due to the global economic crisis, oil prices have also fallen drastically, affecting countries such as Iran whose main income is from oil export revenues. On Friday, the OPEC cartel - to which Iran belongs - said its per-barrel price had dropped to just over 44 dollars.

ISNA news quoted Ahmadinejad as saying that neither the global economic crisis nor the low oil prices would affect Iran.

The Iranian president said that following political failures, the West was also facing a collapse in the economic sphere.

The local opposition however believes that the global economic crisis has also affected Iran, especially the oil revenue calculations in next year's budget, and that Tehran should not at all be happy about this development.

One of Ahmadinejad's main opponents, former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, said during Friday's prayers ceremony that Iran should have its share in settling the current economic crisis.

Since his presidency in August 2005, Ahmadinejad has failed to implement his promised economic reforms and the country is facing an official inflation rate of 30 per cent, although economic observers say the rate is much higher, especially in real estate. (dpa)