Tehran, 11 Nov. (AKI) - Iran has attacked Oxford University after one of its colleges established a scholarship in honour of a woman killed during street protests in Tehran in June. The Iranian embassy in London denounced the 6,600 dollar Neda Agha-Soltan graduate scholarship offered by the university's Queen's College.

But in a letter to the university's chancellor, the Iranian embassy dismissed the decision as "a politically motivated move".

Queen's said the scholarship would help impoverished Iranians study at Oxford.

Soltan became a symbol of the wave of opposition that swept the country after president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected in a widely disputed election in June.

She was shot dead during an anti-government protest in Tehran.

"We believe that your college decision to abuse Neda's case to establish a graduate scholarship will highly politicise your academic institution, undermining your scientific credibility," the letter said.

The embassy also reasserted its claim that Soltan was killed "in an isolated street far from protesters on that day, where her murderers had filmed her and her companions 20 minutes before the incident".

Opposition supporters have claimed that the 12 June poll was rigged to ensure the Ahmadinejad's re-election was rigged.

At least 30 protesters have been killed in clashes since the election and thousands of others have been imprisoned across the country.