Obama says Iranian candidates very similar

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wading into Iranian politics, President Barack Obama said on Tuesday there appeared to be few policy differences between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and rival Mirhossein Mousavi.

Obama's comments came as thousands of Mousavi supporters took to the streets in Tehran for a fourth day of protests over Friday's disputed Iranian presidential elections.

So far, Obama has been cautious in opining about the candidates, telling reporters earlier on Tuesday he did not want to be seen as "meddling" in Iranian internal affairs.

But in a television interview later on Tuesday, the U.S. president let known his views and said he expected a tough time in any future negotiations with Iran no matter who was in the government.

"The difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual policies may not be as great as has been advertised," he told CNBC.

"Either way we are going to be dealing with an Iranian regime that has historically been hostile to the United States," he added.

Several U.S. analysts have been cautioning for weeks against any giddy optimism over a Mousavi win and said he should not be seen as an easy sell in any negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at building a bomb and Tehran says is peaceful.

The Obama administration has been grappling with how to approach the election turmoil in Iran, where the country's top legislative body said on Tuesday it was ready to recount votes amid the biggest street protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution.