"The ministry is ready to organise a new test of the Shahab-3 missile in the presence of observers," Defence Minister Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani said in a statement carried by the official news agency IRNA.

"The recent test that was carried out was a success."

The minister appeared to be reacting to recent foreign press reports that questioned whether an August 11 test had been a failure, noting that the missile had apparently been remotely detonated in mid-flight.

The Israeli daily Haaretz, however, has recently written that the upgraded version of the Shahab-3 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.

The Shahab-3 missile was deployed among the Iranian Revolutionary Guards 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.

In Persian, "Shahab" means "meteor" or "shooting star".

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