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http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009614135353845916.html
'No document'
At about the same time, a statement on Mousavi's website announced that he had formally appealed against the election result to the legislative body, the Guardian Council.
"Today, I have submitted my official formal request to the council to cancel the election result," the moderate politician was quoted as saying.
In depth
"I urge you Iranian nation to continue your nationwide protests in a peaceful and legal way."
Ahmadinejad was declared the winner by a wide margin, with figures from the interior ministry showing he had taken 62.63 per cent of the vote, while Mousavi garnered only 33.75 per cent.
Ahmadinejad defended the conduct of the election at a news conference at the presidential office in Tehran earlier on Sunday.
He also questioned Mousavi's claims that the vote was "rigged".
"It is not clear how they are questioning the participation of 40 million people in these elections," he said.
"I have still not been shown any documents by anybody, they are just saying the outcome is unexpected."It is like football, everybody expects their team to win."
No concessions
Al Jazeera's Teymoor Nabili, reporting from Tehran, said that Ahmadinejad was not giving too much credence to the idea of a reformist movement taking root.
Noting that Ahmadinejad's analogy was of a football ground, he said: "There may be plenty of people within your field of vision but that doesn't mean that they are the majority of people in the country.
"So he doesn't really seem to think that there is any question that the majority of people within the country are behind his position and his political policies and this election has proved it to him.
"So he doesn't seem to need to reach out or make concessions with anybody who doesn't agree with that."
Robert Fisk, a journalist with the UK's Independent newspaper, told Al Jazeera that Ahmadinejad was repeating the point that the high turnout proved that he was in the majority.
"But many of the people that did vote believe that the vote was switched," he said.
"So it was not the turnout that proved that Ahmadinejad is a popular president. It is what the figures actually were. And that of course is what is still being disputed.
Fisk said one Mousavi supporter had pointed out to him that "if the figures were being counted properly on Friday night, five million votes would have had to have been counted in two hours".
Continued protests
On the ground, thousands of Iranians took to the streets in a second day of violence, fighting running battles with riot police in protest against the election results.
Ahmad Reza Radan, Tehran's deputy police chief, told the official IRNA news agency that at least 60 people had been detained over the rioting and more arrests would be made soon.In Tehran police confronted about 200 stone-throwing protesters.
"Forces used tear gas in some areas to stop the unrest. The situation is under control," Radan said.
Al Jazeera's Alireza Ronaghi, reporting from Tehran, said that IRNA was reporting that a committee led by two senior supporters of Mousavi was organising the riots against the election result.
"Whether this is really an honest outburst of anger against the outcome of the election we don't know yet, but what we see is a major crackdown on reformists and their leaders," he said.
Mohammad Reza Khatami, the brother of Mohammad Khatami, a former president, was among the members of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, which won more than 100 seats in the 290-member parliament in 2000, who were arrested.
"They were taken from their homes last night," Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former Iranian vice-president, said.
Spontaneous responses
Sadegh Zibakalam, head of the Iranian studies department at Tehran University, told Al Jazeera that the demonstrations were largely "spontaneous" responses to the election result.
"No one is giving them commands, no one is ordering them, no one is leading them," he said.
"Nevertheless, the government has started a crackdown on the leading reformist figures ... The government reaction is too harsh, but it is understandable."
