TEHERAN - DEFEATED Iranian presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi cancelled a planned ceremony on Thursday to mourn the deaths of slain protestors, his party website said.

The website said the reformist ex-parliament speaker was now planning to hold the ceremony next week.

Iran's interior ministry has banned all gatherings that are being held by opposition groups since the results of the disputed June 12 presidential election were announced.

Mr Karroubi had earlier called for the ceremony while opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was also defeated in the poll, had urged supporters to keep demonstrating but to use 'self-restraint' to avoid further bloodshed.

The Revolutionary Guards, the elite force set up to protect the Islamic republic, has warned of a 'decisive and revolutionary' riposte to any further protests.

'In the recent incidents concerning the election, I have been insisting on the implementation of the law and I will be (insisting). Neither the system, nor the people will back down under force,' Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.

It was the latest indication that the clerical regime will not brook dissent over the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad despite a wave of demonstrations and complaints that the June 12 election was rigged.

A large number of riot police and Islamist Basij militiamen stopped a crowd of several hundred people Wednesday trying to assemble outside the Iranian parliament building, according to a witness.

Another witness near parliament reported seeing police charge at passers-by, who dispersed into nearby streets. Later on Wednesday evening a large squad of riot police remained deployed in the area, a source said.

In the latest diplomatic backlash over what Iran has branded Western meddling, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Teheran may downgrade ties with Britain.

His comments came after the two governments expelled diplomats in a tit-for-tat move, with Teheran increasingly pointing the finger at London over the street violence that erupted in the aftermath of the election. -- AFP

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