Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will nominate a new oil minister on July 24, the official Irna news agency reported on Wednesday, indicating the current caretaker minister, Mohammad Aliabadi, would be put forward for the permanent post.

Ahmadinejad will nominate a total of four ministers to a parliament that was highly critical of his sacking of former Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi in May.

The votes of confidence will be a major test of his sway in the assembly where some members have called for his impeachment.

'As per previous practice, those ministers who are already serving on the posts will be nominated,' Irna quoted Mohammad Reza Mirtajedini, vice-president in charge of parliamentary affairs, as saying, indicating Aliabadi was likely to be nominated.

Irna said parliament would debate the suitability of the ministers and vote to approve them or not within a week of their nomination.

It is far from certain that parliament would approve Aliabadi, who headed Iran's OPEC delegation at a fractious meeting in June.

Many lawmakers said he lacked experience and may be looking for another chance to flex their muscles against an increasingly embattled Ahmadinejad.

The head of parliament's energy committee said in June that Aliabadi, then head of Iran's Olympic Committee and a former vice-president, was the 'worst choice' and would damage Iran's vital energy sector.

Parliament was angered when Ahmadinejad sacked Mirkazemi and initially appointed himself caretaker of the ministry that controls Iran's vast oil and gas reserves.

The president said he was merely executing a plan to merge the Oil Ministry with the Energy Ministry that runs Iran's power grid and water services, but his critics saw the move as a political power grab.

The merger plan has since been put on hold.

His appointment of Aliabadi did little to ease criticisms by ultra-conservative opponents who accuse Ahmadinejad of surrounding himself with a close circle of aides they consider not respectful enough of Iran's clerical system of government.

Along with the oil minister, Ahmadinejad will nominate ministers of Industry, Mines and Trade; Cooperatives, Labour and Social Affairs and Sports and Youth, Irna said.-Reuters