Iran''s top dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said Wednesday the capture of the US embassy 30 years ago by Islamist students was a mistake.

"The occupation of the American embassy at the start had the support of Iranian revolutionaries and the late Imam Khomeini and I supported it too," he said.

"But considering the negative repercussions and the high sensitivity which was created among the American people and which still exists, it was not the right thing to do," Montazeri said in a statement posted on his website.

"Principally an embassy is part of that country and occupying an embassy of a country which was not at war with us was like declaring a war against that country. It was not a correct thing," he said.

"According to my information, those who did that now admit it was a mistake."