TEHRAN, Nov 1: Iran's Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani on Monday predicted US President George W. Bush would be re-elected this week, but only thanks to electoral fraud.

"Since there is a lot of cheating in the US presidential elections, George W. Bush will win," the official IRNA news agency quoted Shamkhani as saying.

Iranian officials have delighted in mocking the US electoral system since the tight 2000 race for the White House which was eventually decided by the US Supreme Court.

Although Iran has been labelled an "axis of evil" member by Bush, the Islamic state insists it favours neither Bush nor his challenger Sen. John Kerry in Tuesday's vote.

"We still don't see any difference between the two candidates and it doesn't make a difference to us who wins," government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh said on Monday.-Reuters