The British government and Amnesty International condemned the televised confession of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, saying Iran appeared to be inventing new murder charges against her.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, whose stoning sentence has provoked international outrage, apparently confessed to adultery and talked about her husband's killing in an Iranian state television interview.

Britain's Foreign Office said it was appalled by the televised confession and concerned by an allegation by a lawyer for Ashtiani that the confession was a result of torture.

"We have urged the Iranian authorities to undertake a thorough review of her case and call on them to comply with the international human rights obligations they have independently signed up to," it said in a statement.

Human rights group Amnesty said televised "confessions" had repeatedly been used by Iranian authorities. Many of the accused had later retracted the confessions, stating they had been coerced to make them, sometimes by torture, it said.

Ashtiani, a mother of two, has received 99 lashes for having illicit relationships with two men. The stoning sentence has been suspended pending a judicial review but could still be carried out, an Iranian judiciary official has said.

ITN News