Jomhouri Eslami said the coverage of Anousheh Ansari, who on Monday became the world's first female space tourist when she blasted off on a Russian rocket, had caused astonishment in Iran.

"The persistence of IRIB (the state broadcaster) in exaggerating the trip of a rich Iranian woman who lives outside Iran and has gone to space with a Russian cosmonaut, has aroused people's astonishment," it said.

"The concern emanates from the fact that IRIB's behavior may lead to creating a role model for our boys and girls, while in our revolutionary society there are many women able to build airplanes and to perform other big industrial tasks with the least of facilities.

"It is expected that IRIB officials consider the repercussions of such role model-making," the hardline paper added.

Its stance clashed with that of Hambasteghni newspaper's coverage on Monday: "The trip into space of Anousheh Ansari is a source of pride for all Iranians," that paper said.

State television devoted considerable coverage on Monday to the space flight of Ansari, who was born in 1966 and left Iran with her parents aged 16 shortly after the Islamic revolution.

Ansari, 40, who made a fortune in the US telecoms market and had dreamt for years of going into orbit, is believed to have paid some 25 million dollars (20 million euros) and trained for six months to become the fourth space tourist in history.

She is due to dock with the International Space Station on Wednesday and spend about eight days there before returning to earth on September 28.

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