"I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost," Obama said at a White House news conference.

The president, while praising the courage of demonstrators, warned careless rhetoric could be twisted into a tool of repression by Tehran and raised "significant questions" about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.

"I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not at all interfering in Iran's affairs," Obama said.

"But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society," he said.

Obama was asked specifically about graphic footage of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, a bystander apparently shot in the chest who died on the street, which has shot around the Internet as a symbol of the post-election uprising.

"It's heartbreaking, and I think that anybody who sees it knows that there's something fundamentally unjust about that.

"I think that when a young woman gets shot on the street when she gets out of her car, that's a problem."

Some Republicans, including Obama's 2008 election rival John McCain, have accused the president of being timid and too slow to embrace the protests sparked by Ahmadinejad's disputed win over Mir Hossein Mousavi.

But he hit back: "Only I'm the president of the United States... in the hothouse of Washington, there may be all kinds of stuff going back and forth in terms of Republican critics versus the administration.

"That's not what is relevant to the Iranian people," Obama said.

Obama has pursued a carefully calibrated position towards Iran, balancing sympathy for protestors with a desire not to be seen "meddling" in the affairs of an arch-foe Washington suspects of developing nuclear weapons.

He said he was waiting to see how the crisis "plays itself out" before assessing its impact on his offer of talks with Iran on its nuclear program and other thorny issues in the tortured relationship with Washington.

Explaining his reluctance to delve into Tehran's internal politics, Obama also complained some of his circumspect words had already been willfully misinterpreted in Iran.

"They've got some of the comments that I've made being mistranslated in Iran, suggesting that I'm telling rioters to go out and riot some more.

"There are reports suggesting that the CIA is behind all this -- all of which is patently false but it gives you a sense of the narrative that the Iranian government would love to play into."

With pundits predicting Obama's political honeymoon will soon cede to a tough slog to enact key reforms like healthcare and financial regulation, the president sought a swift jolt of momentum from the news conference.

He predicted US unemployment would likely climb above 10 percent, as the country battles its worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, but said a new economic stimulus package was "not yet" needed.

The president also offered his full support for legislation on climate change which the US Congress is prepared to put to a vote.

And he said that if lawmakers did not embrace his call for sweeping health reform, including a government component, every American would soon end up with worse health coverage.

"Reform is not a luxury, it is a necessity," he said.

Obama, who has sharply reversed course from his predecessor George W. Bush on global warming, said it was "extraordinarily important" to approve the bill requiring cuts in greenhouse gases despite an economic recession.

"At a time of great fiscal challenges, this legislation is paid for by the polluters who currently emit the dangerous carbon emissions that contaminate the water we drink and pollute the air we breathe," he said.

Tuesday's event was Obama's fourth solo White House news conference since taking office in January and his first such event since the end of April, when he went before the cameras to mark his symbolic first 100 days in office.

earlier related report
Israel keeps anxious eye on Iran turmoil
Israel is keeping an anxious eye on the turmoil in Iran for any signs on what the crisis may mean for its arch-enemy's nuclear drive, which the Jewish state sees as the top threat to its security.

"What is happening in Iran has a direct influence on every Israeli," said Ely Karmon of the Interdisciplinary Centre in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv.

"For many years Iran has supported most of the terrorism against Israel" and threatens "to destroy Israel, to raze it from the map," he said.

Israel, the region's sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state, believes -- as does the West -- that Iran is seeking to acquire a nuclear arsenal, despite Tehran's repeated denials.

Israel also regularly accuses the Islamic republic of supporting the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip.

The idea that these movements could be given some kind of "psychological nuclear umbrella" is particularly worrying to Israel, said Shlomo Aronson, an Iran expert at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

The Mossad spy agency believes Iran will have a ready-to-launch nuclear bomb within five years -- unless its nuclear programme is interrupted -- while Israeli officials have not ruled out using the use of military force.

"The Israelis want two main targets: first is stopping Iran from having the bomb and second to stop Iranian support for terrorist organisations," said Menashe Amir, head of Israeli radio's Persian-language service.

During Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first four-year term, the combative president put Iran on a collision course with the West, defying UN Security Council calls for a halt to uranium enrichment despite three sets of sanctions.

He also triggered fear in Israel and outrage in the West over his calls for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map and repeatedly calling the Holocaust a myth.

While Ahmadinejad' defeated rival Mir Hossein Mousavi is regarded as more moderate, with calls for Iran to improve its relations with the outside world, he has said he would pursue the nuclear drive.

"There is no big difference between Ahmadinejad and Mir Hossein Mousavi because Mousavi declared very clearly... he would continue the nuclear programme," Amir said.

In any event, strategic decisions including nuclear policy remain in the hands of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has openly supported Ahmadinejad's re-election.

But Amir said that if Mousavi, a post-revolution era premier behind widespread protests at vote-rigging in the June 12 election, eventually emerged as president: "It may give European countries the wrong impression that Iran will stop the nuclear programme."

Israel is seeking to rally international opinion against Tehran and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently on his first official trip to Europe, where he is pressing for a tightening of sanctions against Iran.

"I think the true nature of the Iranian regime has been unmasked," Netanyahu told Germany's Bild newspaper.

"This is a regime that represses its own people, supports terrorism worldwide and openly denies the Holocaust, while calling for the elimination of Israel."

Israel's Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv said: "Even had Mousavi been elected he would have continued to lead Iran's nuclear programme and the hostile attitude towards Israel.

"Therefore, Israel has a certain advantage in Ahmadinejad's re-election. With Ahmadinejad as president, it is easier to explain the significance of the Iranian threat," he said.

A Tel Aviv University opinion poll showed 81 percent of Israelis believe Iran will acquire the bomb, 51 percent favour an immediate attack against Iranian nuclear sites, while 49 percent believe in the use of diplomatic means.

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