Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called off a trip to Libya for an African Union summit on Wednesday that would have given the hardline president another chance to appear at an international forum after his disputed re-election.
A spokesman at Ahmadinejad's office said the visit had been cancelled. He gave no reason. It would have been the president's second foray abroad since the June 12 poll set off Iran's most dramatic internal unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
In a show of confidence, Ahmadinejad had attended a regional summit in Russia four days after the vote, ignoring huge street protests by supporters of losing candidates Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, who both say the election was rigged.
The Guardian Council, a supervisory body, on Monday endorsed the election result and dismissed complaints of irregularities, saying a partial recount had shown these were baseless.
But Karoubi, a reformist cleric who came fourth in the poll, remained defiant, saying in a statement posted on his party's website that he viewed Ahmadinejad's government as illegitimate.
Karoubi and Mousavi, a moderate former prime minister, have both called for the election to be annulled and held again.
"I don't consider this government legitimate," Karoubi said. "I will continue my fight under any condition by every means, and I'm ready to cooperate with pro-reform people and groups."
Security forces have crushed street protests and hardliners have regained the upper hand in the world's fifth biggest oil exporter, whose nuclear programme has alarmed the West.
But Mousavi and Karoubi continue to reject the election result in what amounts to an unprecedented challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has upheld the outcome.
Karoubi, a white-bearded cleric who was close to Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, demanded the release of "thousands" of people arrested during the unrest.
"What is most important now is to preserve our revolutionary and political attitude and confront those who want to sideline us. We should all preserve our revolutionary unity," he added. - Reuters