Arrests after protest in Tehran

Student protests have become rarer under President Ahmadinejad

A group of Iranian students are reported to have been arrested following a rare show of opposition to government policies.

The arrests, of up to 70 students, followed a protest at the Amir Kabir university in Tehran.

Some students are angry at moves to re-bury war dead from the Iran-Iraq War in the grounds of the university.

A group of them carried banners, complaining that their campus was being turned into a cemetery.

The students also said the Evin prison in Tehran was being turned into a university - because of the number of students being held there. Forty of the arrested students were later released.

During the re-burial ceremony, witnesses said there were clashes between the protesting students, members of the security forces and other students loyal to the government.

In addition to anger over the burials, the students were reported to be indignant about what they say are restrictions on academic freedoms.

This kind of protest has become increasingly rare since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took power, because of the harsh response of the authorities to public displays of dissent.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran says that, in the past, students have been expelled for taking part in protests. Some have had to hand over the deeds of their parents' homes as a guarantee of good behaviour.