TEHRAN, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Iran's reformist presidential hopeful Mehdi Karroubi hints that he may drop out of the presidential race in favor of another reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi at a later stage, the local Press TV reported on Thursday.

    "Running with a single reformist candidate (at the first stage)would...lead to our defeat, as Ahmadinejad would gain 50 percent of the vote and win the elections in the very first round," Karroubi said Thursday during a campaign visit to the northwestern city of Ardabil.

    However, the time may come for the camp to unify and throw its weight behind a single candidate for the sake of winning the elections, he said, quoted by the report.

    For now, our objective is to win further support for the reformist camp, he added.

    The president in Iran is elected with an absolute majority of votes. But if none of the candidates is able to win such a majority in the first round, voting will be extended to the second round.

    In the second stage, only the two candidates who receive largest number of votes in the first round will participate. The president is elected for a four-year term and may not serve for more than two consecutive terms.

    Mousavi, former Prime Minister, and Karroubi, former Parliament Speaker, are among the four candidates whose qualifications were approved by Iran's Guardians Council and announced on Wednesday.

    The two other qualified candidates are incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the moderate former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezaei.