Iran's science and technology and defence ministries built the craft, the state-run television quoted Mohsen Bahrami, head of Iran's space research centre, as saying.

 

Bahrami provided no other details beyond saying Iran had successfully launched what he called a space rocket or space missile.

Iran in the past has announced that it wanted to be able to send its own satellites, including commercial ones, into orbit. But it has revealed little information about the project.

 

In 2005, Iran launched its first such satellite in a joint project with Russia, and said that its next step would be the launch of a satellite on an 'indigenous rocket'.

Tehran says it hopes to launch four more satellites by 2010 to increase the number of land and mobile telephone lines to 80 million from 22 million.

 

It also hopes to expand its satellite capabilities to let Internet users to rise to 35 million from the present 5.5 million in the next five years.

 

"Investment in space is very serious and requires time, but we are trying to speed this up," Mohammed Soleimani told the official Iranian news agency, IRNA.