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His candidacy underscores the political fragmenting of a conservative faction known as the Principlists, which threw its support behind Mr. Ahmadinejad when he ran for president in 2004. Some leading figures who supported Mr. Ahmadinejad then have not publicly backed him this time.

Mr. Rezai was a candidate in the 2004 presidential race, but he withdrew before the election.

Politicians who favor more political and social openness, along with closer ties to the West, have also been unable to coalesce around a single candidate. They are divided between a former prime minister, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and a former speaker of Parliament, Mehdi Karroubi.

“Mr. Mousavi had thought that he could easily raise huge support by announcing his candidacy,” said Saeed Leylaz, a political analyst in Tehran, referring to Mr. Mousavi’s unexpected announcement last month that he would run for president.“The situation can dramatically change in his favor if he clarifies his position with reformers,” Mr. Leylaz said.

Opponents have accused Mr. Ahmadinejad of economic mismanagement and of using government money to attract support for a second term. His government has come under attack in the past month for distributing about 400,000 tons of potatoes around the country and giving bonuses, including gold coins, to civil servants, Iranian newspapers have reported.

In another development, Iran announced Wednesday that it welcomed nuclear talks and said it was ready to offer a proposal to resolve the dispute over its uranium enrichment activities, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. Mr. Ahmadinejad said last week that Iran would take part in talks, and Wednesday’s statement appeared to be an official response to an April 8 invitation by six major powers for a meeting.

Earlier on Tuesday, the opposition was told by Iran's Guardian Council, the legislative body for elections, that the presidential election result would not be annulled. Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhoda'i said there had been "no major fraud or breach in the election". But Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later agreed to extend by five days the amount of time allowed to examine complaints of electoral fraud.

Mohsen Rezai, who is a former leader of the Revolutionary Guards, said he had withdrawn his complaints about the vote in the interests of Iran's national security. "I see it as my responsibility to encourage myself and others to control the current situation," Mr Rezai was quoted as saying in a letter to the Guardian Council.

The remaining two candidates have called for the elections to be re-run, amid claims of vote tampering. Opposition candidate Mehdi Karroubi has urged Iranians to mourn for dead protesters on Thursday. His call echoed an earlier one from cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri for three days of national mourning for those killed in the street protests.

The council earlier this week said it would carry out a partial recount, but had ruled out a re-run of the poll demanded by Mr Mousavi.

However, opposition supporters are likely to be more encouraged by a statement from the Assembly of Experts - Iran's top clerical body responsible for appointing the supreme leader and, in theory, monitoring his performance. "We congratulate the excited, epic-making and alert presence of 85% of the revolutionary people" in the election, the statement said. It made no mention of the disputed result.

The Assembly of Experts is headed by former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is a strong supporter of Mr Mousavi and a key rival of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The question now, our correspondent says, is whether Mr Rafsanjani will make his power play, and possibly challenge the supreme leader himself.

She said a Wall Street Journal colleague had been "interviewing a young man on the street the other night, and one of the militiamen came up and put a bullet through his neck and killed him".

Mr Rafsanjani's daughter, Faezeh, addressed supporters of Mr Mousavi on Tuesday. The Fars news agency said on Thursday that Faezeh and her brother Mehdi had been barred from leaving Iran over their alleged role in the unrest.

Mr Mousavi and reformist former President Mohammad Khatami have sent a joint letter to the head of the judiciary asking for an end to "the violent actions against people and to free those arrested".

Ebrahim Yazdi, a foreign minister after the 1979 revolution and now leader of the Freedom Movement of Iran, was arrested while undergoing tests at a hospital in Tehran, a spokesman for his organisation said.

"A number of people who are armed, I don't know exactly who they are, but they have started to fire on people causing havoc in Azadi Square." A photographer at the scene told news agencies that security forces had killed one protester and seriously wounded several others.

He said the shooting began when the crowd attacked a compound used by a religious militia linked to the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard.

The AFP news agency reported that police fired tear gas and groups of protestors set motorbikes alight.

The renewed protests come after Mr Mousavi and fellow defeated candidate Mohsen Rezai filed official complaints against the election result with the Guardian Council - the country's powerful clerical group.