Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi said in a statement posted on his website on Wednesday that Iran's new government is "illegitimate".

Iran's presidential election candidate Mirhossein Mousavi speaks during a news conference in Tehran June 12, 2009. [Xinhua]

"From now on ...the majority of society, of which I am a member, will not accept its (the new government's) legitimacy," the statement said.

Referring to a number of detained people of his supporters, Mousavi called on the officials to "free the children of the revolution from the prisons," and also called for lifting of a ban on the media.

Iran's Guardian Council, which is charged with supervising elections in the country, approved the results of the June 12 presidential election on Monday. 

The announcement came after the Guardian Council ran a recount of 10 percent of the votes on Monday, which showed no irregularities, the English-language satellite Press TV channel said.

The Guardian Council's announcement confirmed that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been reelected for a second term.

Guardian Council spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai told state television later Monday that the case for reviewing the election results "is closed now" for the council. 

On June 13, the Iranian interior minister said Ahmadinejad won 62.63 percent of the total ballots, while his main rival Mir- Hossein Mousavi got 33.75 percent.

The other two candidates -- former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezaei -- got less than 2 percent of the total ballots.

After the official declaration, all the three defeated candidates filed complaints over irregularities in the election, while Mousavi and Karroubi have demanded an annulment of the election.

Rezaei later withdrew his complaints filed to the Guardian Council about the disputed presidential election.

The Guardian Council had said it was ready to recount up to 10 percent of the ballot boxes randomly in the disputed presidential election.

However, Mousavi rejected the partial vote recount as a ruse and continued to demand a nullification of the election.

Mousavi's supporters participated in massive rallies in Tehran and other cities following the disputes. Iran's state media said 20 people had been killed in related clashes.

(Xinhua News Agency July 2, 2009)