TEHERAN - IRAN'S top election body on Monday began a partial recount of the fiercely-disputed presidential election but the move is unlikely to placate the opposition which is insisting on a new vote.

Iran has repeatedly accused the West particularly Britain and the United States of 'meddling' as its Islamic rulers struggle to contain to most serious upheaval since the revolution 30 years ago.

Against the backdrop of diplomatic tensions, Iran was conducting a partial recount of ballots cast in the election that returned hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power in what opposition claims was a 'shameful fraud' marred by widespread irregularities.

'The recount of 10 per cent of the ballot boxes is currently under way in various provinces and towns,' Guardians Council spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai said, according to the official IRNA news agency, adding that the result might be announced by the end of the working day.

The opposition wants a complete vote rerun and has staged massive public demonstrations in a dispute that has shaken the very foundations of the Islamic regime, with unprecedented criticism of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to official results, Mr Ahmadinejad won by a thumping majority of 63 per cent against just 34 per cent for his closest rival, the former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, a gap of 11 million votes.

'There was no organised fraud in the election process,' Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie was quoted by the Fars news agency as saying.

'Mousavi has acted very badly and he and others like him are responsible for what has happened since the election.' -- AFP