The president, who took office last week, aims to finalise his cabinet, including a replacement for outgoing oil minister Bijan Zanganeh, this week.
Ahmadinejad was believed to have decided on Ali Saeedlou, one of his deputies when he was mayor of Tehran, but now has two other candidates to consider Kamal Daneshyar and Mohammad Khoshchehreh.
Saeedlou is a complete outsider with no experience of the oil business.
