Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defends his bold statement in which he described post-election protesters as 'dust and pebbles'.

Ahmadinejad had made the statement on Sunday, while addressing his supporters after the Interior Ministry announced that he was the winner of the June 12 election.

In a Thursday statement, the official website of the president rejected reports that he had insulted supporters of his defeated rivals.

Once the Interior Ministry declared Ahmadinejad the winner by a landslide, supporters of Mir-Hossein Mousavi staged rallies in protest at the election results -- which indicated that Mousavi had even lost in his hometown.

Some of the demonstrations turned violent and resulted in the deaths of at least eight people in Tehran. Many others were injured.

"The president described a selected few [rioters] as 'dust and pebbles' who would find no place to 'shine' among the 'transparent' nation of Iran," the statement on the president's website read.

However, certain media outlets have been 'blatantly distorting' the President's remarks by generalizing them and using them out of context, it added.

Addressing a crowd of his supporters in his victory speech, President Ahmadinejad praised the nation for re-electing him, saying the election results reflected his public support.

"The Iranian nation is united. In a football match, there are some 50 to 70 thousand spectators. Those spectators whose team has lost become angry and do anything [to express their anger]. In Iran's election, the 40 million were the players themselves. Some dust and pebbles, however, are up to something. Beware that the transparent river of the Iranian nation will not allow them to shine."

His remarks were interpreted as an insult to supporters of the other three candidates, who remain unhappy about the results.

A senior member of the Islamic Coalition Party and a leading figure of the Principlist camp, on Wednesday, criticized President Ahmadinejad for his remarks, saying it was not decent for a president to 'insult' those rejecting the results of the election.

Habibollah Asgaroladi, a former minister of commerce who had advocated Ahmadinejad's candidacy as the single representative of the Principlist camp for the June 12th election, added that such statements run counter to Islamic teachings.

"One who imagines that his preferences and the preferences of those around him are right and all the others are wrong, and look at the others as 'dust and pebbles' -- irrespective of his rank -- that person has ceased to be a servant of God. For God has told His servants to have the most respectful dialogue with each other."

Mousavi has called for the establishment of a 'truth-finding commission' and the annulment of the election results because of what he calls "widespread ballot rigging." He has rejected the offer of a partial recount of a number of ballot boxes.

Mohsen Rezaei and Mehdi Karroubi, the other two June 12th presidential candidates, have also submitted complaints to the Guardian Council, the body constitutionally tasked with supervising the election.

The Guardian Council is currently looking into complaints, while the daily protests continue. The council said that it has received complaints about 646 different types of 'irregularities' in the elections which was described as 'free and fair' by the president and his Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli.

AR/JG/MMN