Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday that the Republican defeat in US mid-term congressional elections was a rejection of President George W. Bush's "war-mongering" policies.

"The fact that the president's party lost is not just an American domestic incident, it is a defeat for the incumbent president's war-mongering and aggressive policies," Khamenei said on state television.

Democrats seized control of both houses of Congress this week, with many voters saying they cast ballots for the party's candidates in protest over how the Bush administration has managed the war in Iraq.

Meanwhile, top Iranian cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani advised the Democrats, who will take control of the new Congress convening in January, to allow Iran to pursue its nuclear ambitions.