TEHRAN: Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main challenger former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi both claimed to have won the hotly contested election yesterday.

Iranian state news agency IRNA announced that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won the re-election.

“Ahmadinejad, by getting a majority of the votes, has become the definite winner of the 10th presidential election,” IRNA said.

The head of the state election commission said Ahmadinejad was leading Mousavi by 69 percent to 28 percent with about 19 percent of ballots counted.

The report came only minutes after Mousavi claimed that he had won a landslide, with an aide to the former premier putting the figure at 65 percent.

Mousavi told a news conference in Tehran he was the “definite winner.”

“I am the definite winner of this presidential election,” he said. “In line with the information we have received, I am the winner of this election by a substantial margin,” Mousavi told a news conference.

Millions of Iranians streamed to polling stations, causing voting to be extended by four hours to 10 p.m. (1730 GMT) to allow more people to cast ballots, the Interior Ministry said. Those still queuing when the polling stations closed were allowed to vote.

Sadegh Kharazi, a senior backer of Mousavi, said surveys made by reformers showed that Mousavi was getting about 58-60 percent of the votes.

In Washington, Obama said his administration was excited about the debate taking place in Iran and he hoped it would help the two countries to engage “in new ways.”

Long queues had formed at voting centers and officials said there was a turnout of about 70 percent or more, approaching the record of nearly 80 percent when reformist Mohammad Khatami swept the 1997 presidential election. Some people said they had waited for more than two hours to cast ballots, both in northern, affluent areas of Tehran where Mousavi draws support and in southern, poorer neighborhoods seen as Ahmadinejad strongholds.

High turnout could indicate voting by many pro-reformers who stayed away when Ahmadinejad won four years ago on a pledge to revive the values of the 1979 revolution. The vote generated interest around the world with policymakers looking for signs of a change of approach by Tehran.

For Iranians it is a chance to pass judgment on his management of the country's oil exporting economy.

Although Ahmadinejad, 52, says his government has revived economic growth and curbed price rises, inflation and high unemployment were the main campaign issues. Official inflation is around 15 percent.

Social issues, such as strict dress codes for women, as well as Iran's ties with the outside world, also featured in the campaign but the outcome of the vote will not bring a major shift in Iran's foreign policy, which is determined by supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

The United States has had no ties with Iran since shortly after the revolution but Obama said in Washington that the United States had “tried to send a clear message that we think there is the possibility of change” in relations.

Mousavi, 67, rejects Western demands that Iran halt uranium enrichment but analysts say he would bring a different approach to Iran-US ties and talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, which the West alleges is a cover to build bombs. Iran denies this.

“People’s strong, revolutionary and clear decision will bring about a bright future for the nation,” Ahmadinejad said while voting in a working class part of Tehran.