The launch is Tehran’s latest effort to reach out to friendly governments in Latin America and follows Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s four-nation tour of the region earlier in January, which included stops in Cuba and visits to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ecuador.

It also comes as Washington and Europe have imposed tougher sanctions on Tehran over its controversial nuclear program. The EU last week imposed an oil embargo against Iran and froze the assets of its central bank. In December, the United States said it would bar financial institutions from the US market if they do business with Iran’s central bank.

Iran’s broadcasting company said Hispan TV — the first Spanish-language channel airing from the Middle East — will broadcast news, documentaries, movies and Iranian films 24 hours a day.

Iran’s state TV said the channel, which had been on air on a trial basis since October with a 16-hour daily program, will target millions of Spanish-speaking people throughout the world.

“The new channel will limit the ground for supremacy of dominance seekers,” Ahmadinejad said during a Tehran ceremony marking the inauguration. “It will be a means for better ties between people and governments of Iran and Spanish-speaking nations.”

Ahmadinejad ended his speech in Spanish: “Viva la Paz! Viva el Pueblo! Viva America Latina!"

Iran broadcasts daily in five other foreign languages, including in English through state-run Press TV and in Arabic via Al-Alam TV.

The West suspects Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon, a charge that Tehran denies, insisting its atomic program is only for peaceful purposes such as power generation.

Meanwhile, some 50 exiled members of the Iranian opposition and civil society will meet in Stockholm at the weekend to discuss how to help implement democracy in Iran, organizers said Tuesday.

The two-day conference "will gather leading representatives from different parts of the opposition outside the country as well as writers, activists and university professors outside Iran," the Olof Palme Center said.

The "Unity for Democracy in Iran" conference will aim to "make it possible for different parts of the opposition to meet and discuss how they can coordinate their efforts for democracy in Iran," it said.

Iran is holding a parliamentary election on March 2, in what is seen as a tussle between two conservative camps, the supporters and opponents of Ahmadinejad.

"People from the opposition have turned to us with a request for support in making it possible for the different parts of the opposition to be gathered. They have also sought advice on how to coordinate their work," Olof Palme Centre head Jens Orback said.

The conference, which is part of the centre's efforts to support opposition movements within authoritarian states, will be closed to the media.

The centre was created to work for democracy, human rights, and peace in memory of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme who was gunned down by a lone attacker in February 1986, shortly after leaving a Stockholm cinema.