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Mr Siramy said she was not a spy "in the classic sense of the word", but worked "à l'anglaise"(in the English style). In other words she "bravely" handed over information on an "amicable" basis for the good of the country.

"She was our representative's contact," said Mr Siramy.

In this capacity she provided reports on domestic politics in the run up to last July's presidential elections and on a nuclear site under construction next to the central town of Isfahan where she was an assistant university teacher, said Mr Siramy.

"She deserves to be recognised as someone who worked very well (for France)," he said.

Anonymous, high-ranking sources in the DGSE broke their traditional silence to deny Mr Siramy's "mendacious claims". "Miss Reiss has never worked for us" in any capacity and was never assigned a code name or number, the sources said. Mr Siramy was already in their sights for recently publishing a revealing account of his time within the spy service.

His comments are embarrassing for Paris as they add fuel to Teheran's claims that Miss Reiss was part of a Western plot to topple the clerical regime following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election last June.

Miss Reiss was seized as she tried to leave Iran on July 1 and charged with acting against national security by participating in opposition protests, collecting inform... >>>