"We are going to have a ceremony to recruit volunteers for suicide operations and create the first suicide battalion to defend the Bushehr power station, which is the target of Israeli propaganda," a member of the Committee for the Glorification of the Martyrs of the World Islamic Movement said.

The source, who asked not to be named, did not specify whether the volunteers who signed up in the meeting scheduled for Thursday would be used as human shields or in retaliation to any attack.

The group is a little-known but outspoken organisation of unclear affiliation.

The source only added that Bushehr, which is still under construction and being built with Russian help, was "a part of the interests of Iran and the Islamic world".

In recent weeks there has been a mounting war of words with Israel, which accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. The spat has increased speculation that the Jewish state may attempt a pre-emptive attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

However, on Sunday the Iranian foreign ministry dismissed the threat of an Israeli attack as a "silly joke" and "just a psychological war".