Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi Sunday expressed deep regret over the storming of the British embassy in Tehran and pledged to prevent future attacks, the German foreign ministry said.

"On the issue of the attack on the British embassy in Tehran, the Iranian foreign minister expressed that he was deeply sorry for what has happened," the ministry said in a statement, recounting a meeting between Salehi and his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Saturday that governments worldwide are curbing personal liberty, privacy and free speech by misusing technology.

"Bulk surveillance of entire nations is on," Assange said in an address from Britain via video to a media conference in New Delhi.

A senior Iranian cleric on Saturday sought to put distance between Tehran's officials and a pro-regime mob that ransacked Britain's embassy this week, while admitting his country could pay a "high price" for the assault.

"There is no doubt that Britain is one of the oldest enemies of Iran... but young revolutionaries should not go beyond the law," IRNA news agency quoted Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi as saying in a statement.

Iran's diplomats expelled from London over the storming of the British embassy in Tehran this week arrived in the Iranian capital early Saturday, Iranian media reported.

The group of diplomats was kept out of sight of waiting media as they passed through back corridors in Tehran's international airport after landing aboard an Iran Air flight.

Iran's diplomats in Britain prepared to leave the country Friday as a deadline loomed for their expulsion following the storming of the British embassy in Tehran by protesters.

The Iranian flag was still flying outside the Iranian embassy in west London ahead of the deadline at around 1400 GMT, but TV pictures showed a removals van outside the ambassador's residence.

A rally on global markets stalled Thursday as euphoria over major central banks' coordinated cut to borrowing costs wore off and investors sought confirmation that European leaders will next week deliver a long-term solution to the debt crisis.

Markets had jumped on Wednesday when the central banks of Europe, the U.S., Britain, Canada, Japan and Switzerland made it cheaper for banks to borrow dollars, helping them to operate smoothly at a time of tight credit. China's central bank also acted to release money for lending and shore up growth by lowering bank reserve levels for the first time in three years.

Britain and the European Union welcomed on Wednesday Lebanon’s announcement that it will uphold its duties to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon

“The United Kingdom remains a strong supporter of the tribunal and of a stable, independent and peaceful Lebanon,” the British Foreign Office said in a statement after Premier Najib Miqati announced that Lebanon had paid its dues to the tribunal.

Britain closed its Tehran embassy on Wednesday after evacuating all its diplomats from Iran as part of a "very tough" response to the storming of the mission the day before by Iranian protesters.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain had also ordered Iran to vacate its embassy in London by Friday, stressing it did not mean diplomatic ties between the two countries had been entirely cut off.

Norway has closed its embassy in Tehran after the British mission in the Iranian capital was attacked by an angry mob, the government said on Wednesday.

Norway's diplomatic staff is still in Tehran and no decision has been taken to evacuate them, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hilde Steinfeld told Agence France Presse.

Britain was Wednesday evacuating its diplomatic staff from Iran following the storming of its embassy by Iranian protesters the day before, which sparked international condemnation.

The Foreign Office in London confirmed information from EU diplomats in the Iranian capital that the British staff was being withdrawn.