Iran announced yesterday in Tehran that it had successfully test-fired a new class of home-made surface-to-surface guided missile, in the latest step in a weapons programme that has alarmed the US and Israel.
State television broadcast pictures of the ballistic missile taking off from a simple launcher at a desert site and helicopter film of the impact crater.
It said the Fateh 110, which uses "composite solid" fuel, had been built entirely by Iran's arms industry. "This very modern missile . . . is classified as Iran's most effective because of its high precision in destroying targets," the television said. It gave no range for the rocket.
Iran last year test-fired a new version of its Shahab-3 ballistic missile, believed to be based on a North Korean design and said to have a range of 1,300 km, making it capable of striking Israel.
The Fateh 110 appeared far smaller - about twice the height of a standard army truck.
The US and Israel have expressed concern over Iran's development of missile technology, with alleged help from Russia, China and North Korea, which they believe could one day be used to deliver weapons of mass destruction.
Iran insists its programme is strictly conventional and meant for deterrence. Defence analyst Mr Andrew Brooks of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said the Fateh 110 was likely to be a domestically modified replica of a Chinese missile.
It was probably part of an Iranian effort to develop homemade shore-to-ship missiles capable of interdicting traffic in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, through which more than one-third of the world's oil supplies transits, he said.
Iran's Defence Minister, Mr Ali Shamkhani, a candidate in next week's presidential election, said: "All our cities are within range of missiles of neighbouring countries. You will agree there is no other option to prevent them."