BAKU -- Azerbaijan's opposition called yesterday for a new election, armed with stinging reports from election observers that said the vote fell well short of international standards.

Officials from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the European Union and even from Azerbaijan's supporter, the United States, expressed serious concerns about the fairness of Sunday's parliamentary election.

"There were all kinds of violations," said Leo Platvoet, head of the delegation from the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly. Of the 3,000 reports received on election night about the vote count, Mr. Platvoet said, about 43 per cent indicated that the process was "bad or very bad."

The effect of the international condemnation may be limited in an authoritarian state that remains a staunch military ally and an important source of oil for Western countries. The monitors declined to make any judgment about whether the election's flaws affected the overall result, in which the ruling party retained firm control of parliament.

Foreign observers in Baku and a U.S. spokesman in Washington suggested the violations should be investigated by Azeri courts, despite the judiciary's ties to the government in this country, and urged the opposition to remain peaceful.

Opposition leaders promised to obey. They cancelled plans for a demonstration today after the mayor of Baku refused to authorize the gathering.

Instead, they planned a protest for a three-hour period tomorrow afternoon in a square outside the downtown. It was the only place allowed -- a spot that protesters had previously complained was too far from the city centre.

"We don't want to give the authorities any excuse for violence," said Isa Gambar, one of the leaders of the opposition Azadliq, or freedom, bloc of parties.

Azadliq won only six seats in the parliament, the Central Election Commission said, while the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) took 63 seats. The result gives YAP control of the 125-seat parliament because most of the Independent candidates support the government.

Azadliq leaders said they're hoping the comments from foreign election observers will bring people into the streets to protest and force the government to overturn the results.

But many Azeris in downtown Baku seemed unaware of the criticism. State-dominated media gave little or no coverage of the reports, whose criticisms included the lack of dissenting voices in the overwhelmingly pro-government media.

What people saw on television last night was President Ilham Aliyev, who inherited power from his father, KGB veteran Heydar Aliyev, receiving congratulations for holding a fair election.

"The people of Azerbaijan have expressed themselves in transparent, free conditions, and voted for their desired candidates openly, fairly and democratically," Mr. Aliyev said.

The President also said the election's serious flaws were contained to "seven or eight" districts, and promised the problems would be investigated.

Mazahir Panakhov, chairman of the government-dominated Central Electoral Commission, put the number of problem areas slightly higher, saying suspicious events would be investigated in 10 constituencies.

International observers published a long list of problems with the election process, from the campaign period to the ballot counting and tabulation of the results.

The problems included: ballot-box stuffing; intimidating observers; tampering with the ballot-counting process; local authorities interfering with impunity during the campaign; and at least 38 constituencies having illegal numbers of registered voters.

The observers' report noted that Azerbaijan has made progress in some areas: such as allowing opposition candidates to register; permitting foreign-funded NGOs to participate in election observation; inking voters' fingers to reduce fraud; and authorizing some opposition rallies, albeit with severe restrictions.

Those initial gestures toward complying with international standards were overshadowed by events on election day, said U.S. congressman Alcee Hastings, who led the short-term observer mission.

"It pains me and my colleagues to note that progress noted in the pre-election period was undermined by significant deficiencies," Mr. Hastings said. "The election-day process deteriorated considerably during the counting and tabulation."

International observers in Baku refused to comment on whether the vote marked an improvement over the 2003 presidential election, which was widely seen as corrupt and sparked days of bloody protests, arrests and police beatings.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters that the election signalled improvements on several fronts in the country's democratic progress.

"There have been a large number of candidates allowed to register, there has been increased access to the media and there has been access to the elections by foreign observers and that's important and worth noting," Mr. Ereli said.

The U.S. spokesman also noted the problems, however: "There were major irregularities and fraud that are of serious concern."