Iran to hold limited recount of votes

Dubai: Iran's electoral watchdog said on Tuesday there would be no annulment of results, but it is ready to recount the presidential ballots if it finds irregularities in the vote counting.

At the same time, authorities banned foreign media from covering "unauthorised" rallies, a day after its disputed presidential election sparked deadly clashes.

The culture ministry instructed the foreign media to "avoid participation or news coverage of gatherings which do not have the interior ministry permit," in an apparent reference to rallies for defeated candidate Mir Hussain Mousavi.

Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was declared the winner in Friday's vote with 63 per cent, spoke on Tuesday at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Russia where he made no mention of the worst riots taking place in Iran in a decade.

Rather, he used the opportunity to declare that the "age of empires" was over.

"America is overwhelmed by economic and political crises and there is no hope in their decisions," he said, pointing to the occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Palestinian question.

The decision by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to probe the election results on Monday demonstrated to many that the rioting that has engulfed the streets of Tehran in the past few days has made Iran's leadership nervous.