Two car bomb blasts killed one Iranian nuclear scientist and wounded another in Tehran on Monday, Iran's Al Alam Arabic language television reported.   

The bombings, rare attacks in the Iranian capital, occurred ahead of a possible meeting between Iran and major powers next month to discuss the country's nuclear programme.   

Analysts say information about Iran's nuclear activities is very valuable for the United States and its allies, particularly ahead of the meeting.

In the past months, Iran has arrested a number of "nuclear spies", warning citizens over leaking information to foreign secret services.   

"Majid Shahriyari was martyred and his wife was injured ...Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani and his wife were both wounded," state radio said. "The attackers planted a bomb on each of the teachers' vehicles."    

Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi warned "enemies" not to play with fire by carrying out such attacks. "Our nation's patience has a limit ... when it is over our enemies will face a tedious fate," Salehi said, the official Irna news agency reported.

"Dr. Shahriyari was my student for many years and he had good cooperation with the Atomic Energy Organisation."    

Iran's English language Press TV showed police and plain clothes security agents examining a silver-coloured Peugeot 206 car with what looked like shrapnel holes in its bonnet.         

No group has claimed the responsibility but Iranian officials and media both blamed Israel, which Tehran calls "the Zionist regime", and the United States for the killing of the nuclear scientist.         

Another nuclear scientist, Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, was killed by a remote controlled bomb in Tehran in January. Some opposition websites said he backed moderate candidate Mirhossein Mousavi in the 2009 disputed presidential vote that secured President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.

Western sources said in January that Mohammadi worked closely with Fereydoun Abbassi-Davani, who was subjected to UN sanctions because of his work on suspected nuclear weapons development.

"Abbasi-Davani has not been seriously injured in the blast," the semi-official Mehr news agency said. Salehi said one of the country's biggest nuclear projects was on the killed scientist's agenda, without giving further details, Irna reported.   

Iran says its atomic programme is purely peaceful, but suspicions that it is seeking nuclear weapons have led to the imposition of several rounds of international sanctions by the United Nations, the European Union and the United States. - Reuters