As Iran's embattled Opposition Leader Mir Hussein Moussavi renewed a call for protests against the disputed presidential elections, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assailed US President Barack Obama on Thursday, telling him to stop interfering in Iran’s affairs and accusing him of striking the same hostile tone as George W Bush.

Fars news agency quoted Ahmadinejad on Thursday as saying in remarks addressed to Obama: “I hope you will avoid interfering in Iran’s affairs and express regret in a way that the Iranian people are informed of it.”

Apparently brushing aside Obama’s offers, made in the early days of his presidency, of a dialogue with Iran, Ahmadinejad said, “Obama made a mistake to say those things.”

“Our question is why he fell into this trap and said things that previously Bush used to say,” he said, according to Fars.

Earlier, the BBC quoted Iranian newspapers as saying more than 100 legislators of Iran’s Parliament had failed to attend a victory celebration called by Ahmadinejad on Wednesday night. If confirmed, the news would provide further evidence of a split in the Iranian political elite over the way the authorities have handled protests. Ahmadinejad’s remarks came as Opposition figures said 70 academics had been arrested after a meeting Moussavi.

On his website on Thursday, Moussavi said he was coming under pressure to withdraw his challenge to the election, which he says was stolen. He said on his website that there were “recent pressures on me aimed at withdrawing” his challenge to the vote. He complained that his “access to people is completely restricted”.

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