The trial began in the revolutionary court in Tehran, INSA said, without naming the defendant.

Iranian judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimi Rad had earlier told AFP that two suspected spies were due to be tried on August 2 and 20. Another had already been sentenced but was awaiting appeal, he added.

Iran said late last year it had arrested a dozen people in 2004 on suspicion of spying on Iran's nuclear programme for US and Israeli intelligence services.

The judiciary spokesman said the defendants' lawyer, Abdolfattah Soltani, had also been detained in connection with the case.

"Soltani's charge is a security crime including publicizing confidential information of the case by speaking to a radio station and talking about the content of the case with relatives of the defendants," Karimi Rad told reporters.

Soltani, a member of Nobel prize-winning lawyer Shirin Ebadi's centre to defend human rights, also represents Iran's highest profile political prisoner, journalist Akbar Ganji.

Ebadi has expressed concerns about the case and said she expected similar arrests to follow.

But Karimi Rad said Soltani's detention was not against the law.

"He was summoned but hid himself. He is now in Evin prison," Karimi Rad said.

Soltani was arrested Saturday while holding a sit-in at a Tehran bar building to protest against a search of his house and an arrest warrant issued against him.

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