Tehran: Iran's president has criticised the parliament speaker in an ongoing conflict over legislation that analysts believe represents a more large scale battle between rival groups ahead of next year's presidential election.

Iran's conservatives retained parliamentary control last month but staunch Ahmadinejad supporters lost ground.

The new parliament, which is due to take office in May, is expected to bring rifts in the party to the surface as presidential hopefuls, possibly including speaker Gholamali Haddadadel, go up against Ahmadinejad.

In a letter printed in Tuesday's newspapers, Ahmadinejad said Haddadadel should recheck his facts referring to when he blamed the president for not notifying government bodies about three acts of legislation passed by parliament.

"Would it not have been better for you to take three minutes to make a simple phone call to the legal department of the presidential office? ... What was all this haste really for?" he wrote in the letter published by the daily Abrar newspaper.

"Is it fair to baselessly put pressure on a government, which is under pressure for seeking justice by all those who are corrupt and all the oppressors?" Ahmadinejad continued.