Khamenei at the weekend had rebuked the deputies for their role in the squabbling that broke out in the February 3 impeachment session, during which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and speaker Ali Larijani got into verbal fight.

"For our part, we apologize for what happened ... during the impeachment," of the labor minister Abdolreza Sheikholeslam, said a statement signed by 265 members of the 290-seat parliament, media reported on Monday.

The parliamentarians emphasized that obedience to the leader, who had dubbed the impeachment as a "bad decision", was a "religious and legal obligation".

Following Leader's criticism, Ahmadinejad, the speaker and the judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani expressed "obedience" to him in separate letters, media reported.