Tehran  - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that the country's opposition leaders should be held responsible for the unrest that followed the disputed June 12 presidential election.

"They cannot just make baseless fraud allegations for which they could not present any proof and mix up the Tehran streets with unrest," Ahmadinejad said at a press conference in Tehran.

The president called last month on the judiciary to prosecute the opposition leaders whom he accused of directing the unrest after they charged his re-election was conducted through fraud.

"The leaders have definitely directed the unrest, accepted support of enemies or at least kept silence toward the foreign plots against the country," Ahmadinejad said.

The opposition is currently led by a quartet consisting of former premier Mir-Hossein Moussavi, former parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karroubi and former presidents Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami.

The four are still insisting on their fraud charges and have not yet acknowledged Ahmadinejad's re-election.

"Elections mean that the outcome is either winning or losing, either getting the votes or not, so there should be an ethical capacity for not winning instead of raising fraud charges," Ahmadinejad said.

He termed his administration as the "most legitimate" in Iranian history, and described the presidential election as an "ultimate model of democracy" and the people's choice for the path of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Ahmadinejad added that a plot by foreign powers who wished to see a change of the country's political status was decisively neutralized by the people.

The opposition has also made charges that people detained over the protests were tortured and even raped in prison and claimed that at least 70 people have been killed in the unrest.

The government and parliament categorically rejected the rape charges and the opposition claim over the casualties.

The opposition leaders likewise rejected accusations by the presidential camp that they were linked to foreign countries.

Moussavi has accused Ahmadinejad of misusing Islam for his political aims and Khatami charged the president with using a fascist and totalitarian approach. (dpa)