Tehran, Iran ? President Bush isn’t the only leader facing serious economic woes. Icy weather is causing big political trouble for Iran’s hard-line president, who is under attack for mismanaging the economy as the country runs perilously low on gas for heat.

More than 60 people have died in the cold, some because of gas shortages in remote and mountainous villages, and even Iran’s supreme leader has implicitly rebuked his one-time protege.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was openly humiliated when state radio read a decree by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday ordering him to implement a law approved by Parliament to supply more natural gas to remote villages.

Ahmadinejad had balked – for budgetary reasons – at Parliament’s order to spend $1 billion from the country’s currency reserve fund to supply the gas.

But Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters under Iran’s complicated system, overruled him. That was particularly noteworthy because, although Khamenei has cooled publicly toward the president in recent months, he rarely enters into any outright dispute.

“This was an unprecedented real hit to Ahmadinejad’s government,” said Tehran political analyst Saeed Laylaz.

As with Bush, the economic troubles and growing discontent come ahead of crucial elections that could affect the future of Ahmadinejad’s political party.

The Iranian leader has struggled politically for months, as one-time supporters joined critics in saying he should focus on Iran’s economy rather than on confrontations with the West. On Tuesday, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany agreed on a new draft resolution to tighten sanctions against Iran over the country’s refusal to suspend its nuclear program, officials said.

Ironically, Iran has the world’s second-largest natural gas fields after Russia. The country produces more than 15.75 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day, all consumed domestically.

The exact cause of the current shortage was unclear, but demand clearly spiked because of the cold weather. Many critics say production could easily have been doubled long before this, if managed correctly by the government.

“The crisis of the gas shortage was a direct result of (the government’s) policy,” said Laylaz.

Many view high inflation and shortages of gas and bread as particularly bitter because Iran should be flush with oil revenues right now from high world oil prices. More than 80 percent of the government’s revenues come from oil, and Ahmadinejad had campaigned on a platform to help the poor.

“This was our fault. We elected a man who cannot manage problems,” said Haydar Mirghasemi, who waited for an hour and a half outside a Tehran bakery this week to receive six pieces of bread – the staple of Iranian tables.

Long lines have formed at city bakeries because of fears of bread shortages, which have hit other towns and cities after heating gas was cut.

“During the past week, I came to the bakery four times, returning empty-handed” each time, said another angry customer, Ali Moradi, a construction worker.

Mockingly he added: “How good the government has treated the lower class.”