Ahmadinejad also proposed a new energy minister after his first pick likewise failed to muster enough support from MPs, the Mehr news agency said.

‘This afternoon (Sunday) the president presented Mrs. Fatemeh Alia and Mr. Ali Zabihi in an official letter to the parliament as his nominees for the education and energy ministries,’ respectively, a member of the parliament presiding board Hamid Reza Hajibabai was quoted by as saying by Mehr.

Alia is serving her second term as member of parliament and is regarded as close to Ahmadinejad, while Zabihi is head of Iran’s Social Security Organisation that deals mainly with pensions.

Hajibabai added that a vote of confidence on the latest two candidates would be held in parliament on September 15.

Ahmadinejad’s chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie confirmed the nominations, according to the ISNA news agency.

The Islamic republic on Thursday got its first female minister when Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi was among 18 of the 21 names on Ahmadinejad’s list of proposed new cabinet members was approved by parliament.

A gynaecologist and former MP, Dastjerdi, 50, was approved as health minister despite never having held an executive job in government.

Dastjerdi described her selection as an ‘important step’ for Iranian women.

The other two women nominees, Sousan Keshvaraz and Fatemeh Ajorlou, fell short of the required number of votes to take over the education and welfare and social security portfolios respectively.

Ahmadinejad’s pick for energy minister Mohammad Aliabadi, was also shot down by MPs during Thursday’s vote.

There was no word on Ahmadinejad’s new choice for welfare minister.

The new ministers will propell Ahmadinejad into his second four-year term after the upheaval sparked by the hardliner’s disputed re-election in June.