However the officer said, on condition of anonymity, that it could take up to a week to verify whether Tehran's claim that it had sent an Omid (Hope) satellite into space on a home-built Safir-2 space rocket was true.

"It will take several days for all our countries to examine the information," the high-ranking officer said.

"First we will varify whether it is really a satellite and at what altitude it is travelling at," he said.

He noted the apparent "light weight of the satellite -- from 25 to 40 kilogrammes -- and the quite low altitude, from 250 to 500 kilometres, at which it would be flying."

"If this is confirmed, it would mean that their rockets are capable of firing 2,000-3,000 kilometres, and would therefore have the range to hit part of Europe and Israel," he said.

"It would be confirmation of their potential."

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