(CNN) Roughly 3,700 people were arrested during recent anti-government protests in Iran, one of the country's lawmakers claimed on Tuesday.

The number is far higher than the 450 people Iranian authorities previously said were detained. US officials had put the number held at 1,000.

Tehran member of parliament Mahmoud Sadeghi said Tuesday that 3,700 people had been arrested, including 40 to 68 students, in six days of protests that broke out in late December.

He added that "due to the fact that several security organizations had made the arrests, it will take some time to give an accurate count," according to the Iranian parliament's news agency.

Students protest at the University of Tehran on December 30.

The new figures come as Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that the country had struggled for 40 years against attacks on "the revolution" and would not be daunted now. He made the remarks during a speech commemorating protests against the Shah of Iran in 1978.

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