TEHRAN, March 14 (RIA Novosti) - Iran's president accused the UN Security Council of attempting to influence Friday's general election by imposing sanctions on the country, but said the attempt would fail.

Iranians went to the polls today in a vote likely to produce a victory for the country's conservatives after many reformists were barred. The UN's resolution on a third round of sanctions over Iran's refusal to halt its nuclear program came less than two weeks before the vote.

"Before the election the enemies of our country expected the resolution to influence the bold participation of the Iranian people. However, this view was wrong," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told journalists after casting his ballot at a polling station in the capital, Tehran.

"The enemies of the Iranian people cannot influence the heart of our nation. This election will be a great honor for the great nation of Iran and an embarrassment for the lying [Western] media," he said.

Iran's Interior Ministry said turnout so far has been higher than expected, and that the opening hours of polling stations had been extended by one hour as a result.

The election has come under criticism in Western media as 1,700 reformers and critics of Ahmadinejad's hard-line policies have been barred from the polls by an unelected body of clerics and legal experts.

Reformists currently hold around 40 seats in the 290-seat parliament.

Polling booths opened across Iran at 8:00 a.m. local time (04.30 GMT). The results of the election are to be officially announced by March 20.

Under the new UN sanctions against Iran, the accounts of certain Iranian companies and banks will be frozen, and goods leaving and entering the Islamic Republic will be subject to inspection.