1 killed in Iran, Obama 'deeply troubled'

Washington: US President Barack Obama says he is "deeply troubled" by violence in Iran following last week's disputed presidential elections, as reports of the death of one proetster came in.

In his first public comments on the situation in Iran, Obama said: "I am deeply troubled by the violence that I've been seeing on television. I think that the democratic process, free speech, the ability for folks to peacefully dissent, all those are universal values and need to be respected."

The president however avoided making any comment on the allegations of vote fraud.

"We respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran," Obama said.

"We will continue to pursue a tough, direct dialogue between our two countries and see where it takes us," Obama told reporters today at the White House, where he was meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

"But even as we do so, it would be wrong for me to be silent about what we've seen on the television over the last few days."

Tehran has been gripped by protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim of victory over former Mousavi in the June 12 balloting.

At least one demonstrator was killed when a pro- government militia fired at a crowd.

Gunfire from a pro-government militia killed one man and wounded several others Monday after hundreds of thousands of chanting opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad marched in central Tehran, supporting their pro-reform leader in his first public appearance since disputed elections.

Obama said of the demonstrators that "the world is watching" and is "inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was."

"We do believe the Iranian people and their voices should be heard," Obama said.

Mousavi has called for the election results to be scrapped. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the election's supervisory body, the Guardian Council, to carefully consider Mousavi's allegations of voting irregularities, state-run television reported.

Mousavi, 67, said there were "obvious violations" and called for the election result to be thrown out after the official tally gave Ahmadinejad, 52, almost 63 percent of the vote. The former prime minister took about 34 percent.