State television said Iran's Revolutionary Guards will test fire the missile during military manoeuvres being watched by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after firing short- and medium-range missiles on Friday.

"The most important part of today's programme consists of the firing of a long-range missile on fictitious enemy positions," the television said.

Iran's state-controlled media have been giving extensive coverage to the manoeuvres in the western part of the country.

The officially stated purpose of these exercises is to "test and evaluate new equipment," try out "modern tactics" and maintain the "spirit of jihad (holy war) and of defense."

Saturday's report said the missile was a "strategic" one, a term that normally refers to weapons systems designed to strike an enemy at the source of its power, such as its cities, factories, military bases, communications and transport.

The report gave no details on the range or capabilities of the missile.

In August, Tehran tested an enhanced version of its medium-range Shahab-3 missile, which is derived from the North Korean No-dong missile reportedly capable of carrying a 1,000 kilogram (2,250 pound) warhead.

The Shahab-3 was deployed with the Revolutionary Guards air arm in July last year. Although the missile has been paraded with the banner "Israel should be wiped off the map", Iran says it is purely defensive.

The Israeli daily Haaretz recently wrote that the upgraded version had a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,280 miles), whereas the previous version was believed to have a range of 1,300 to 1,700 kilometers.

Whatever the case, the missile is well within the range of Israel, which lies only some 800 kilometres (500 miles) west of Iran.

The United States and Israel claim Iran is using its atomic energy program to secretly develop nuclear weapons, and fear the missiles could be used to carry nuclear warheads.

Tehran vehemently denies charges that it is seeking nuclear weapons, saying its program is purely for civilian purposes.

On Monday, the head of Israeli military intelligence, General Aharon Zeevi, claimed that Iran could be in a position within six months to develop nuclear weapons without outside help.

Two days later, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Iran and its nuclear ambitions represent "a very great danger" to the Jewish state but played down the prospect of a pre-emptive strike on its atomic facilities.

Israel has acted in the past to eliminate perceived nuclear threats, bombing Iraq's Osirak nuclear facility in 1981.

Iran has promised to retaliate against any such move.

"Iran constitutes a very great danger, due to its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and means of launching them," Sharon said.

Asked if that meant Israel needed to carry out a pre-emptive strike against Iran, Sharon said times had changed and instead called for the threat posed by Iran to be addressed by the United Nations.

The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency is currently considering a US-European draft resolution that would set a November deadline for a full review of Iran's nuclear program.

Israel itself refuses to confirm it has a nuclear arsenal but is estimated to possess some 200 warheads.

Unlike Iran, it is not subject to inspections by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency because it has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

All rights reserved. � 2004 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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