America has dramatically increased its funding for Iranian human rights groups and dissidents as Tehran was directly accused of developing nuclear weapons by France today.

Heaping pressure on the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the French Foreign Minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, told Tehran to "Come back to reason".

"No civilian nuclear programme can explain the Iranian nuclear programme. So it is a clandestine Iranian military nuclear programme," M Douste-Blazy told France 2 television.

Next month at a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran is expected to be reported to the UN Security Council for its nuclear activities.

In the most outspoken remarks yet from a senior minister in the E3 group of France, Germany and the UK, which has negotiated with Tehran for three years over its nuclear programme, M Douste-Blazy said that Iran was no longer responding to the international community.

"The international community has sent a very firm message by saying to the Iranians: ’Come back to reason. Suspend all nuclear activity and the enrichment of uranium and the conversion of uranium,’" he said. "They are not listening to us."

As diplomatic manoeuvring intensifies, the Bush Administration revealed some of its tactics to weaken the clerical regime in Iran, requesting $85 million to fund media efforts to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Iranians and support dissidents in the country.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, mentioned the plan in a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington.

The spending, made up of a $75 million grant to the National Endowment for Democracy and $10 million already appropriated by the State Department, marks a huge increase from last year. In 2004, the US Government spent just $3.5 million on similar efforts in Iran. In 2003, just $500,000.

"For our part, the United States wishes to reach out to the Iranian people and support their desire to realise their own freedom and to secure their own democratic and human rights. The Iranian people should know that the United States fully supports their aspirations for a freer, better future," said Dr Rice.

"We are funding programs that train labour activists and help protect them from government persecution. We are working with international NGOs to develop a support network for Iranian reformers, political dissidents, and human rights activists," she said.

The money will be spread between reformers and a massive development of media organisations run by the US Government, including Voice of America and Radio Farda, a Farsi-language radio station that plays a mixture of music and news and is aimed at a young Iranian audience.

According to The New York Times, America also plans to launch a 24-hour Farsi satellite television channel. Around $5 million will be spent on websites.

This month an emergency board meeting of the IAEA agreed to report Iran to the UN Security Council, where it may face economic sanctions, when the IAEA Secretary-General, Mohammed ElBaradei, submits his next report on its nuclear activities in March.

Iran responded by threatening to refuse short-notice inspections by IAEA investigators and to restart its uranium enrichment programme. On Tuesday, Iran resumed the feeding of uranium gas into centrifuges.

Iranian negotiators also postponed talks with Russia, due to start today, that could have led to Russia enriching uranium on Iran's behalf, a compromise that has the support of all five members of the UN Security Council.

Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, said the French comments were unhelpful: "I suggest M Douste-Blazy to use a diplomatic tone and avoid increasing the tension by making such comments," he told Iranian state television. "His motivation for making such comments is unclear to us."

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