By Edmund Blair

TEHRAN, Oct 23 (Reuters) The Iranian authorities have banned a pro-reform newspaper that was just a week old, suggesting that the new publication simply mimicked a daily which had been closed down in September.

Many of the journalists at Rouzegar, which hit the newsstands for the first time last Monday, had worked on Sharq, the country's leading pro-reform daily before it was shut.

Opposition journalists and activists said the ban was part of what they saw as the government's efforts to stifle opposition, particularly before December elections to a powerful clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, and local councils.

"What is clear is that the system which is ruling Iran does not tolerate any other voice," Abdolreza Tajik, a journalist who worked on Rouzegar and Sharq, told Reuters.

"This is a loss to reformists and it is in line with making the establishment consistent (with the government voice)." Analysts say Sharq, which was gaining popularity despite a modest circulation of 130,000, could have become a rallying point for reformists. Many saw Rouzegar as a thinly veiled repackaging of Sharq, despite denials by Rouzegar journalists.

Reformists, who back social and political change, have suffered a string of electoral defeats, most recently losing the presidency last year to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who rails against the West and vows a return to Islamic revolutionary values.

Reformists have been trying to regroup before the next polls.

Analysts say reformists may not make much impact in the race to the Assembly of Experts, a body which oversees Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but may make gains in councils.

The government denies gagging the press or free speech and says it welcomes criticism. The press supervisory board said it banned Sharq for failing to replace a managing director accused of publishing blasphemy and insulting officials.

"The press supervisory board, with a majority of votes, banned Rouzegar," the students news agency ISNA reported.

"After banning one publication, the publication of any kind of publication instead of that, which is similar in name, sign or form, is forbidden," it quoted the board saying.

It did not mention Sharq by name but Rouzegar journalists said the board considered Rouzegar a copy of Sharq.

"Now we are approaching the time of elections and they are going to restrict the public media," said Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, spokesman for the Society for Defence of Freedom of the Press.

Critics say the government is clamping down on opponents and squeezing the media, including more vigorously enforcing a ban on satellite dishes, blamed by the authorities for bringing "corrupt" Western values into Iranian homes.

REUTERS MQA HT1917