Iran declares win for Ahmadinejad in disputed vote

Tehran: Supporters of the main election challenger to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clashed with police and set up barricades of burning tyres on Saturday as authorities declared the hardline president was re-elected in a landslide.

Opponents responded with the most serious unrest in the capital in a decade and charges of a "dicatorship".

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, closed the door on any chance he could use his powers to intervene in the disputes from Friday's election. In a message on state TV, he urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, calling the result a "divine assessment".

But Ahmadinejad's main challenger, Mir Hussain Mousavi, has rejected the result as rigged and urged his supporters to resist a government of "lies and dictatorship".

The clashes in central Tehran were the most serious disturbances in the capital since student-led protests in 1999.

Several hundred demonstrators - many wearing the trademark green colours of Mousavi's campaign - chanted "the government lied to the people" and gathered near the Interior Ministry as the final count was announced. It gave 62.6 per cent of the vote to Ahmadinejad and 33.75 to Mousavi, who served as prime minister in the 1980s and has become the hero of a youth-driven movement seeking greater liberties and a gentler face for Iran.

The turnout was a record 85 per cent of Iran's 46.2 million eligible voters. Two other candidates received only a fraction of the vote.

Protesters set fire to tyres outside the Interior Ministry and anti-riot police fought back with clubs and smashed cars. An Associated Press photographer saw a plainclothes security official beating a woman with his truncheon.

In another main street of Tehran, some 300 young people blocked the avenue by forming a human chain and chanted, "Ahmadi, shame on you. Leave the government alone."

Mousavi's campaign headquarters urged people to show restraint.

Earlier, the powerful Revolutionary Guards said they would not tolerate any challenges by Mousavi's "green" movement.

"I'm warning that I won't surrender to this manipulation," said a statement on Mousavi's website.

Communication disruptions since Friday suggested an information clampdown. Nationwide, the text messaging system remained down on Saturday.