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”.

Reuters also quoted him as rejecting the Government’s crackdown. “I insist on the nation’s constitutional right to protest against the election result and its aftermath,” he said, complaining about the closure in recent days of an opposition newspaper and the arrest of those who worked here. “The illegal confrontation with the media opens the way for foreign interference,” he said.

As the authorities have moved against Moussavi’s followers, there have been mounting fears that Moussavi is himself in danger of being detained. The reported arrests of more of Moussavi’s supporters followed efforts by Iranian officials to finally crush all resistance to the presidential vote on June 12. On Wednesday, security forces overwhelmed a small group of protesters with brutal beatings, tear gas and gunshots in the air.

Security agents continued to fan out across the country, detaining former Government officials, journalists, activists, young people and old. An eyewitness told The New York Times by telephone that a woman had been shot in the neck during the crackdown.

The Government also stepped up its efforts to block independent news coverage of events all across the country. The Government has banned foreign news media members from leaving their offices, suspended all press credentials for the foreign press, arrested a freelance writer for The Washington Times, continued to hold a reporter for Newsweek and forced other foreign journalists to leave the country.

That made it difficult to ascertain exactly what happened when several hundred protesters tried to gather outside the Parliament building Wednesday afternoon.