London  - Thirty years after the Iranian revolution, the estimated 20 million Iranians with access to satellite television will be able to witness the inauguration of a new US president - live on the BBC.

They will see the historic event on BBC Persian TV, just a few days after the publicly-funded channel is launched at 1330 GMT Wednesday, aimed at 100 million Farsi speakers in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and central Asia.

Its main focus will be on Iran, where around 40 per cent of the population of 70 million are estimated to have access to a satellite connection.

The channel has a target of 10 million viewers within two years, with 7 million of them in Iran, according to the BBC.

The daily 8-hour broadcasts at peak viewing time have failed to meet official favour in Tehran, which has warned that "British intelligence" would use the BBC to "recruit Iranians for espionage and psychological warfare."

For the BBC, however, the establishment of its second foreign TV news service, following the launch of an Arabic channel a year ago, the Farsi broadcasts are designed to fill an information gap between the strictly-controlled Iranian media on the one hand and the US-funded Voice of America on the other.

"We will be able to provide coverage of events that have never been seen before in Iran," said BBC World Service director Nigel Chapman.

The service would provide "high-quality accurate and impartial news, information and analysis from a global perspective" in contributions put together in London by the channel's 100 journalists - recruited from Iran - and 50 support staff.

The BBC has a bureau in Tehran, from where a correspondent provides English-language reports for BBC News, but the Iranian government has refused permission for Persian TV to have a permanent presence in the country.

The situation has led critics to question the BBC's ability to offer "in depth" coverage of national Iranian news.

However, the BBC stresses that the new channel will have Persian-speaking correspondents based in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, as well as in Kabul, Beirut, Islamabad, Jerusalem and Washington.

BBC Persian TV, which is run with an annual funding of 15 million pounds (22 million dollars) from the British government, complements the existing BBC Persian radio service which has been on air since 1941, and which has a regular audience of 2.5 million.

Chapman said that while radio would "remain the bedrock of what we do," the BBC could not ignore the fact that television was "one of the best ways to reach people in new markets such as the Middle East."

In the long term, it was the BBC's strategy to "have the right services in the right media for each part of the world," said Chapman.

"We have to be realistic about how people consume news and get information, and not providing TV services for Arabic and Farsi audiences is like battling for people's attention with one hand tied behind our backs," he added.

Behrouz Afagh, head of the BBC World Service's Asia and Pacific region, believed that the new service will give an "opportunity for Persian speakers worldwide to debate common issues ... and promote greater understanding through dialogue."

"The channel is going to showcase the best of Iran. It is not going to be a hostile channel. That's not our agenda," said Afagh.

Despite Iranian misgivings about the new channel, and the long-held perception that the BBC is the voice of the British government, the BBC believes that its reputation for credibility and impartiality - and the geopolitical changes in the world - could in the long term lead to its greater acceptance.

His conversations with Iranian officials had been "reasonably limited," admitted Chapman, adding that he had "not sensed any hostility" during his visits to Tehran.

"They are waiting to see what the service is like. There is an interest and curiosity," he said. (dpa)