Hamburg - Iran summoned several foreign diplomats over alleged interference in the country's internal affairs, as protests against alleged election fraud were to continue on Wednesday.

According to official media reports reaching the German Press Agency dpa in Hamburg, the ambassadors of Britain, the Czech Republic Germany, Italy and the Netherlands were summoned to the Foreign Ministry and asked to respect the outcome of the presidential election and stop "hostile comments."

The controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sparked an internal and external crisis following widespread allegations of vote fraud.

Supporters of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi decided to continue demonstrating Wednesday in central Tehran.

The protests have also spread to other Iranian cities but there are no reliable reports on their size.

Following a news blackout in the local press, the foreign media was on Tuesday also banned from covering the protests.

International media has become dependent on information from witnesses, Moussavi's supporters and his website Ghalamnews.

Moussavi's supporters have created a news network due to frequent shutdowns of the mobile phone system. Text messaging has not been working since Thursday, and the internet has become their main platform for information exchange, but it works only at low speed.

According to witnesses, Tuesday's protest rally was peaceful, mainly because the police did not allow any confrontation between Moussavi and Ahmadinejad supporters.

Moussavi's supporters say police are visibly showing more sympathy with protestors than in the initial days.

Due to the media ban, both the number of the arrested protestors and students as well as deaths cannot be verified.

According to reliable sources, five protestors have been killed in the rallies and their relatives were asked to identify their bodies.

Opposition circles say that a large number of reformist officials, including members of former president Mohammad Khatami's government such as vice-president Mohammad-Ali Abtahi and spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, have been arrested but is unclear whether they are in jail or not.

The wave of arrests is said to also include journalists, dissidents and lawyers.

Meanwhile the Guardian Council, a legislative body in charge of reviewing and approving election results, has been ordered by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to carefully check the fraud charges.

The council will reportedly also include Moussavi in the review process, which is a novelty in Iran.

It is, however, unclear what documentary proof the council would demand from Moussavi and what acceptable documents the opposition leader could present.

Observers believe that permission for a partial recount of some disputed ballots might be granted.

Moussavi and other opposition officials called for the election to be annulled and demanded a rerun of the vote. (dpa)