The United States has again accused Iran of persecuting members of the Baha'i faith and urged it to lift the death sentences imposed on six Baha'is.

A spokesman for the US State Department referred to the recent house raids and the arrest of more than thirty Iranian Baha'is associated with a Baha'i education network as the latest evidence of Iran's restrictions on the religion.

The some three-hundred-thousand Baha'is living in Iran are the country's largest religious minority.

Teheran denies any persecution but refuses to recognise the faith which it regards as a heresy.