Iran leader accepts new deadline for vote complaints

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has accepted a request by Iran's top legislative body to extend the deadline by five days for receiving and looking into election complaints, state television said on Tuesday.

The Guardian Council, which investigates complaints submitted by defeated candidates about the disputed June 12 election, earlier made the request in a letter to Khamenei. The initial deadline was set for June 24.

"The Supreme Leader accepted the request by the secretary of the Guardian Council to extend by five days (the deadline) for following up complaints by candidates," state television said.

The Guardian Council, which must approve the results of the election, has said it is ready to recount a random 10 percent of the votes but has ruled out cancelling the election, as demanded by two moderate candidates.

Official results showed that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election by a landslide. But former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi, his main challenger, says the vote was rigged and wants the election annulled.

(Reporting by Zahra Hosseinian; writing by Fredrik Dahl; editing by Matthew Jones)