The report named the activist as Jebreal Khosravi. It did not identify the illegal group but Iran has banned Kurdish parties.

Khosravi, arrested last year, is from the western city of Sanandaj, capital of Iran's Kordestan province which has seen periodic demonstrations and armed clashes between Iranian forces and separatist Kurdish groups.

Etemad Melli also reported that Iran had cancelled the licence of the Kurdish-Farsi fortnightly journal, Rojhalat, for a second time after the supreme court last November lifted an earlier ban.

The local publication, run by Mohammad Ali Tofighi, was close to reformists.

In November, Iran handed down an 11-year jail term to Mohammad Sadigh Kaboudvand, a Kurdish rights activist and journalist, for "acting against national security."