“People with experience and goodwill are working on a plan to get out of the current situation,” Rafsanjani said at a session of the Experts Assembly, a powerful clerical body headed by him.

“The use of correct criticism should replace the current tensions,” he added.

Rafsanjani neither disclosed details of the plan nor named the people involved.

The opposition accuses the government of fraud in the June 12 presidential election, which led to the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

According to the opposition, at least 72 protestors were killed in anti-government demonstrations since then and more than 200 Ahmadinejad critics jailed. According to official statistics, more than 20 were killed and 110 jailed.

Police said 35 further protestors were arrested Friday when thousands used an annual anti-Israel rally to protest against Ahmadinejad.

Opposition leaders Rafsanjani, former prime minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi, former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and ex-president Mohammad Khatami have caused anger within the establishment by not yet acknowledging Ahmadinejad’s re-election.

Ahmadinejad has called on the judiciary to take legal action against the opposition leaders for their role in the recent unrest.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who according to the constitution has the final say on all state affairs, has so far refrained from giving a green light to Ahmadinejad’s demands to prosecute the opposition leaders.

The opposition has vehemently rejected charges by the government and especially pro-Ahmadinejad media that it was aiming to weaken and even topple the Islamic establishment and insisted its sole aim was to correctly implement the constitution.

The tensions between the opposition and government escalated after Karroubi raised the issue of torture and rape of post-election detainees. Although the charges were categorically denied by officials, the opposition cleric still insists the charges are true.