The BBC is to spend £15million a year of taxpayers' money on a TV channel aimed at Iranians.
The corporation launches Persian TV , hoping it will compete with tightly-controlled state media in the Islamic republic.
But the broadcaster has already come under fire for wasting public money on the channel, which will be largely inaccessible to British TV viewers.
There are also fears that the BBC's attempts to force its way into the Iranian media market will cause further diplomatic rows.
Iranian officials have claimed the TV service, aired in the Farsi language, will be used by British intelligence for 'espionage and psychological warfare'.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime, which already blocks the BBC Persian website to large sections of its population, has described Persian TV as ' suspicious and illegal' and 'working against the interests of the Islamic republic'.
The BBC says viewers must decide for themselves if it is safe for them to use the channel, which has already been refused permission to have a correspondent based in Tehran.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps is also said to have told citizens to avoid contact with the 'lie-spreading' network.
The corporation's website bbcpersian.com (above) has been blocked by the Iranian government, meaning ordinary people cannot access it
Even British politicians fear the the BBC has been urged to launch the channel to try to spread Western values into Iran.
Conservative MP Philip Davies, who sits on the culture, media and sport select committee, said: 'For me this is absolutely laughable that they should be spending all this money on a Persian TV channel, when the Iranian government already block access to its website.
'The BBC has lost all sense of what it should be about.
'Most disturbing is that because it is so ludicrous from a journalism point of view, in that they will not even have their own reporters in Iran, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that they are being leant upon by the British government to do it.'
Accusing the BBC of ' empire building', he added: 'Having a BBC Persian channel is not going to change the way Iran conducts itself.'
The BBC says that the service, manned by 150 mostly Londonbased staff, will be available to millions of Persian-speakers.
As well as an estimated 70 million Persian speakers in Iran, there are said to be another 20million in Afghanistan and 10million in neighbouring Tajikistan.
But the BBC will struggle to get maximum coverage for the service, which will broadcast for eight hours a day, as satellite dish receivers are banned by Iranian authorities.
The World Service said that despite the rules, about 40 per cent of people still have the equipment, meaning 20million in Iran could get the service.
In the UK, only those with certain types of satellite dish will be able to receive the service but it will also be available on www.bbcpersian.com.
As well as news broadcasts, it will also show programmes on music, technology, sports and culture.
Like the rest of the World Service, Persian TV will be paid for by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office - and ultimately by British taxpayers.
The BBC has already launched an £25million-a-year Arabic television service to compete with the likes of Al Jazeera.
A BBC spokesman said research had shown that people in the region valued the corporation's independence and impartiality.
And Nigel Chapman, director of BBC World Service, said: 'BBC Persian TV builds on our distinguished history of broadcasting in Persian and brings the best of the BBC's news and documentary programmes to audiences.'
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