Foreign ministers from the world’s main industrialised countries have issued a statement “deploring” post-election violence in Iran.

The G8 bloc’s comments fell short of the condemnation wanted by France and Italy, after Russia warned against isolating Iran.

Earlier the US accused Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of seeking to blame the US for the unrest.

Iran has seen unprecedented protests against Mr Ahmadinejad’s re-election.

Engagement ‘is key’

The G8 foreign ministers, meeting in Italy, said they “fully respect” the sovereignty of Iran, but “deplore post-electoral violence, which led to the loss of lives of Iranian civilians”.

“We express our solidarity with those who have suffered repression while peacefully demonstrating and urge Iran to respect fundamental human rights,” the statement said.

“The crisis should be settled soon through democratic dialogue and peaceful means.”

The G8 called on the Iranian government to guarantee that “the will of the Iranian people is reflected in the electoral process”.

They also said the door to dialogue with Iran must remain open.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said engagement with Iran was “the key word”.

He stressed the need to focus on “the main task – to move toward resolving the issues of the Iranian nuclear programme”.

He said “no-one” was prepared to condemn the election process, because it was “an exercise in democracy”.

The three-day G8 meeting, taking place in Trieste, is the first high-level meeting of the leading Western countries since violence erupted in Iran after the 12 June election.

The primary focus of the G8 talks was intended to be the stabilisation of Afghanistan so Iran, as a neighbouring country, had been invited to attend.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki withdrew at the last minute.

‘Ruthless’ punishment

Before the G8 issued its statement, a spokesman for Iran’s top election body, the Guardian Council, said the vote had been fair.

“We have had no fraud in any presidential election and this one was the cleanest election we have had,” Abbasali Kadkhodai told the Irna news agency.

The BBC’s Jeremy Bowen, in Tehran, says the comments – two days before the Guardian Council’s review is completed – suggest their conclusion is a formality.

Meanwhile, a senior hard-line cleric said in his Friday sermon that the leaders of the protests should be dealt with “severely and ruthlessly”.

“I want the judiciary to… punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson,” Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Tehran university in comments broadcast nationwide.

And a war of words between Tehran and Washington appears to be stepping up.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs accused Mr Ahmadinejad of attempting to deflect attention from events at home, after the Iranian president attacked US President Barack Obama on Thursday telling him to avoid “interfering in Iran’s affairs”.

Mr Gibbs said: “There are people in Iran who want to make this not about a debate among Iranians in Iran, but about the West and the United States.

“I would add President Ahmadinejad to that list of people trying to make this about the United States.”

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