The execution was carried out in a prison in the northwestern city of Orumiyeh, the report said without specifying the name of the convict and when he was hanged.

The rebel was a member of banned Iranian-Kurdish rebel group PJAK, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, and had a "direct role" in the killing of a border police officer in Orumiyeh, it said.

The latest hanging brings to 34 the number of executions reported in Iran so far this year, according to an AFP count based on media reports. Most of the people executed have been drug traffickers.

At least 179 people were executed in 2010 in Iran.

Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are punishable by death in the Islamic republic, which along with China, Saudi Arabia and the United States has one of the highest numbers of executions each year.

Iran says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order and is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.