TEHERAN - PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed on Tuesday to change his team and show respect for Iran's youth as opposition leaders made a joint plea for the release of hundreds of people held in election protests.

The new government to be installed in a few weeks' time will put 'housing, employment and economic reform' on its agenda, he said in a televised address to the Iranian people following his controversial success in the June 12 poll.

'We must respect people's feelings, especially the youth,' said Mr Ahmadinejad, whose opponents allege he was only returned to office through vote rigging.

The re-election of the hardline incumbent, who enjoys the backing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sparked fraud allegations from two of his rival candidates, ex-prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and reformist Mehdi Karroubi.

The two challengers brandished their continuing defiance on Tuesday in a joint statement with former president Mohammad Khatami.

'The useless wave of arrests should end immediately and those who are being detained without even committing the slightest sin should be released,' they said in the declaration released via Mr Mousavi's campaign website, Ghalamnews.

The opposition leaders also denounced what they called 'brutal attacks' on 'innocent people, student dormitories and residential houses' by Iranian security forces.

'The atmosphere where security forces continue to be deployed must end, as it only radicalises political movements,' they said.

'If rights of the the protesters had been respected or if the people had not been lied to or disrespected, the situation would have never turned into a national crisis,' Mr Mousavi, Mr Karroubi and Mr Khatami said. -- AFP