Reports that an Iranian nuclear scientist had been "assassinated" by Israeli security service Mossad have been denied by Tehran, local Fars news agency reported on Sunday.

Ardeshire Hassanpour, a 44-year-old Iranian nuclear physicist, had been "suffocated by fumes from a faulty gas fire while asleep," Fars quoted an unidentified "informed source" as saying. Reports of an "assassination" are being denied by Mossad. 

The source added that Hassanpour had been a Shiraz University professor and was in no way connected to Iran's Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) located in the central city of Isfahan.

British newspaper The Sunday Times reported that the prize-winning Iranian nuclear scientist had died in mysterious circumstances and an intelligence source suggested he'd been assassinated by Mossad.

Quoting Radio Farda, which is funded by the US State Department and broadcasts to Iran, the British newspaper said Hassanpour worked at a plant in Isfahan where uranium hexafluoride gas is produced.

The report added that Iran announced his death on January 21 after a delay of six days and gave the cause as "gas poisoning."

Hassanpour won Iran's leading military research prize in 2004 and was awarded top honor at the Kharazmi International Science Festival in Iran last year.

Rheva Bhalla of Stratfor, the US intelligence company, claimed on Friday that Hassanpour had been targeted by Mossad and there was "very strong intelligence" to suggest that he'd been assassinated by the Israelis.

But in the Fars report the Iranian source strongly denied the theory and said the Israeli intelligence services were, "basically incapable of running operations inside Iran."

"Such reports are released to serve propaganda purposes," he said. "Iran's nuclear scientists are continuing their efforts to master civilian nuclear technology for peaceful purposes."

Earlier on Sunday, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, Iranian vice president and head of the country's Atomic Energy Organization, also denied the reports, saying that all the country's "nuclear experts, thank God, are safe and sound." 

According to Fars, Aghazadeh said that no body named Ardeshire Hassanpour had been among his employees.

(Xinhua News Agency February 5, 2007)