Iranian officials today blamed extremists and supporters of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime for a string of bombings in the southwest of the country and Tehran.

The death toll from the six explosions - the most serious bomb attacks in Iran for a decade - rose to ten this morning according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

One hundred people were injured, 26 of them seriously, in the attacks, which were concentrated in the city of Ahvaz, the capital of Iran's Khuzestan province, which borders Iraq.

Four bombs, one outside the governor's house and two outside the housing ministry, exploded in the provincial capital on Sunday, killing eight. Two devices exploded a few hours later in Tehran, one of them killing two in a crowded marketplace.

Today Ali Agha Mohammadi, a spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council, Iran’s top security decision-making body, told state television that the bombs had been set by groups with links to Iraq's fallen Baathist regime. Mr Mohammadi said the perpetrators of the Ahvaz bombings had crossed into Iran from Basra in southern Iraq.

The governor of Ahvaz, Mohammad Jafar-Sarrahmi, made a similar accusation, telling Agence France Presse: "Those responsible are hand-in-hand with our enemies abroad." The governor suggested that the bombs could be the work of the People’s Mujahideen Organisation, an exiled Iranian opposition group.

One man has been arrested in connection with the attacks but police gave no more details.

The allegations of Iraqi involvement come after some Sunni leaders in Iraq have criticised what they perceive to be Iranian meddling in the rebuilding of the Iraqi government.

Iran, which is predominantly Shia, has been accused of supporting Shia clergy and politicians and there is speculation that Sunday's attacks were a reprisal, aimed at unsettling Iran's presidential elections, which take place later this week.

Another theory behind the bombings circulating today related to a more local cause. Ahvaz was disrupted by two days of violent protests last week in which officials have acknowledged one person was killed and 250 people were arrested.

The protests were sparked by a forged letter purporting to be from the Iranian Vice President ordering non-Arabs to move to Ahvaz to become the majority population. Ahvaz is mainly Arab, a rarity in Iran, whose population is 51 per cent Persian.

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