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TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said it had launched a domestically made satellite into orbit for the first time on Tuesday, prompting further concern among Western powers and in Israel over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Iran said the launch of the Omid (Hope) research and telecom satellite was a major step in its space technology timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed shah.

The long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into orbit could also be used for launching warheads, although Iran says it has no plans to do so.

"Dear Iranian nation, your children have placed the first indigenous satellite into orbit," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a televised message, adding the launch was successful.

Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said Omid was orbiting earth. The ISNA news agency quoted him as saying: "We have established communications with it and the necessary information has been received."

Sending the Omid into space is a message to the world that Iran is "very powerful and you have to deal with us in the right way," an Iranian political analyst said.

U.S. and British officials said the Iranian satellite program may use technology that could be used for ballistic missiles, and noted the United Nations has sought to discourage Iran's nuclear and missile programs. Iran has long said its nuclear program is purely for civilian energy purposes.

U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters of the launch: "That's of grave concern to us."

British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell said it "underlines and illustrates our serious concerns about Iran's intentions," adding it sent the "wrong signal to the international community."

WORLD POWERS TO MEET

Senior officials from six world powers -- the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and China -- will meet on Wednesday to discuss the nuclear row with Iran. It is their first meeting since U.S. President Barack Obama took office.

Obama has signaled that he will pursue direct talks with Tehran but has also warned Iran to expect more pressure if it does not meet the U.N. Security Council demand to halt atomic work the West fears has military aims.

Iranian state television showed footage of a rocket blasting off from a launchpad and lighting up the night sky as it streaked into space.

"With God's help and the desire for justice and peace, the official presence of the Islamic Republic was registered in space," Ahmadinejad said.

A U.S. security official said in Washington said it was unclear what Iran intended to use the satellite for and the United States was still trying to learn more about it.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters during a visit to Ethiopia the satellite had peaceful aims.

But Andrew Brookes of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think-tank in London said the news would prompt concern in Israel and elsewhere in the region.

"They will think that this civilian capability will soon be transformed to a military reconnaissance and intelligence gathering capability," he said.

Isaac Ben-Israel, a former head of The Israel Space Agency, told Reuters in Jerusalem: "If they managed to fire a satellite into space it means they can also reach Western Europe."

IRAN UNDER SANCTIONS

Iran is under U.N. and U.S. sanctions because of suspicions about Tehran's nuclear plans.

The Islamic state, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, says its nuclear work has no military goals but is limited to generating electricity to meet domestic needs.

Ahmadinejad has set tough terms for talks with Obama's administration, saying it must change policy not just tactics toward Tehran and apologize for past "crimes" against Iran.

Last August, Iran said it had put a dummy satellite into orbit with a domestically made rocket for the first time. U.S. officials said that launch had ended in failure.

Tal Inbar, head of the Space Research Center at Israeli think-tank the Fisher Brothers Institute, said Iran was only the ninth country in the world capable of both producing a satellite and sending it into space from a domestically made launcher.

"We should regard this satellite as the 'Iranian Sputnik'," he told Israel radio, saying Iran was the first to join this club after Israel in 1988. "The main value is ... propaganda."

Western experts say Iran rarely gives enough details for them to determine the extent of its technological advances, and say that Iranian technology largely consists of modifications of equipment supplied by China, North Korea and others.

The television broadcast said the Omid would return to earth with data after orbiting for one to three months. Iran already had a satellite in orbit but the Sina-1 was launched by a Russian rocket in 2005, said the television.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair, Zahra Hosseinian and Hashem Kalantari in Tehran; Noah Barkin in Berlin; Daniel Wallis in Addis Ababa; Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Randall Mikkelsen, Sue Pleming and Andrew Gray in Washington; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by David Storey)

Cpl Kendall wrote:Time to bomb Iran! Time to bomb Iran!

That's what your about to hear from every Republican in Washington.

Mikey wrote:
Thankfully there's fewer than before.

I'd call this news the least threatening of any of the latest to come from Iran regarding nuclear projection capabilities, though.

Mark wrote:Oh yes. Since only those of us part of the alliance are allowed to have satelites and other high tech toys.

GrahamKennedy wrote:I don't think Iran wants to get nukes so that they can attack the US.

However, a nuclear armed Iran, especially one with long range missiles that can hit the US, is a serious complication for the US. The US currently deals with Iran from a position of considerable strength, militarily. People in the US often talk of bombing Iran for this or that reason. If Iran had a dozen ICBMs with even small nukes on them, such attacks essentially become impossible - politically so rather than militarily so. No President is going to say "Iran funded terror, bomb targets X and Y" if there's even the slightest chance that Iran would respond by pushing the button.

If Iran does want nuclear weapons, I think that's why. Not to attack the US or even Israel, but just to strengthen their own position.

Mikey wrote:Impossible. No religion in the UFP, remember?