Iranian missile launch alarms US

JERUSALEM - The missile test-fired by Iran early yesterday was the longest-range solid-propellent missile it had launched yet, raising concerns about the sophistication of Tehran's missile programme, a United States Government official said.

He said Tehran had demonstrated shorter-range solid-propellent missiles in the past.

Solid-propellent rockets were a concern because they could be fuelled in advance and moved or hidden in silos, the official said. Liquid-propellent rockets have to be fuelled and fired quickly, which makes preparations for launches easier to monitor and would allow a pre-emptive strike if necessary.

But according to Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who yesterday provided official US confirmation of the Iranian launch, the missile had a range of 2000 to 2500km.

That puts Israel, US bases in the Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe within striking distance.

"The information that I have read indicates that it was a successful flight test," Gates told the House Appropriations Committee nearly eight hours after it was announced by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Gates added that "because of some of the problems they've had with their engines we think, at least at this stage of the testing, it's probably closer to the lower end of that range. Whether it hit the target that it was intended for ... I have not seen any information on that".

US officials said government analysts and other specialists were still assessing information from the launch. "Obviously, that's concerning," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said of the launch.

The launch comes less than a month before Iran's presidential election and just two days after President Barack Obama declared a readiness to seek deeper international sanctions against Tehran if it did not respond positively to US attempts to open negotiations on its nuclear programme.

Ahmadinejad said the Sejil 2 missile had "landed exactly on the target".

The launch may also have been timed to coincide with the official start of campaigning for the June 12 election.

The President faces challenges by critics of his stridently anti-Israel and anti-Western rhetoric. At a rally in the northern Selman province, where the official Iranian news agency IRNA said the launch had taken place, Ahmadinejad said Iran had the power to "send to hell" any military base from which "a bullet" was fired against the country. State television showed footage of a missile soaring into the sky, followed by a vapour trail.

In a reference to Israel, Ahmadinejad said: "The Zionist regime ... threatens Iran with its false threats and the Iranian nation should know that it is just theatre."

Danny Ayalon, Israel's deputy Foreign Minister, said: "If anyone had any doubt, now it's clear to all that Iran is playing with fire."

- INDEPENDENT, AP