Mousavi seeks to overturn Iran election result

By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi demanded on Sunday that Iran's presidential election be annulled and urged more protests, while tens of thousands of people hailed the victory of the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mousavi's supporters again took to the streets after violence on Saturday, clashing with police in protests that have underscored political rifts exposed by Friday's disputed vote.

In a statement on his website, Mousavi said he had formally asked the Guardian Council, a legislative body, to cancel the election result.

"I urge you, Iranian nation, to continue your nationwide protests in a peaceful and legal way," he added.

Mousavi's supporters handed out leaflets calling for a rally in Tehran on Monday afternoon. After dusk some took to the rooftops across the city calling out "Allah Akbar" (God is greatest), an echo of tactics by protesters in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The unrest that has rocked Tehran and other cities since results were declared on Saturday is the sharpest expression of discontent against the Islamic Republic's leadership for years.

The election result has disconcerted Western powers trying to induce the world's fifth biggest oil exporter to curb its nuclear programme. U.S. President Barack Obama had urged Iran's leadership "to unclench its fist" for a new start in ties.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden cast doubt on the election result but said Washington was reserving its position for now.

"It sure looks like the way they're suppressing speech, the way they're suppressing crowds, the way in which people are being treated, that there's some real doubt," he told NBC's "Meet the Press" when asked if Ahmadinejad had won the vote.

Germany, one of Iran's biggest trading partners and a negotiator in the West's nuclear talks with Tehran, has summoned the Iranian ambassador, the foreign minister said.

"We are looking toward Tehran with great concern at the moment. There are a lot of reports about electoral fraud," Frank-Walter Steinmeier told Germany's ZDF television.

An adviser to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said what was happening in Iran was "clearly not good news for anyone, neither for the Iranians nor for peace and stability in the world."

SEA OF FLAGS

Ahmadinejad appeared amid a sea of red, white and green Iranian flags waved by partisans thronging Tehran's Vali-e Asr square, some perched on rooftops or cars, to applaud the victory he achieved with a surprising 63 percent of the vote.

"Some ... say the vote is disrupted, there has been a fraud. Where are the irregularities in the election?" he said in a speech that the crowd punctuated with roars of approval.