© AFP/HO

TEHRAN (AFP) - Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in his new year message to the nation on Saturday that Iran had defeated "enemies" last year who plotted against the Islamic revolution.

"The enemy of the Islamic republic, after a lapse of 30 years, concentrated all its efforts so that it could defeat the revolution from inside," Khamenei said in a message broadcast on state television.

"But the Iranian nation, with exceptional resistance, alertness and determination, defeated the enemy's plots."

Khamenei has regularly blamed foreign powers, especially the United States and Britain, for the deadly unrest which erupted after the re-election last June of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The supreme leader's message came after US President Barack Obama subtly shifted Washington's rhetoric on Iran.

A year after offering a "new beginning" to the Islamic republic, Obama used his annual Nowrouz message to keep open the door to dialogue, but also reached out more to the Iranian people themselves rather than their leaders in Tehran.

"Even as we continue to have differences with the Iranian government, we will sustain our commitment to a more hopeful future for the Iranian people," Obama said in his message released by the White House.

Iran begins the new year on Sunday.