Iran's radical cleric-led regime is bolstering its efforts to jam satellite television signals from about 20 foreign TV channels beaming calls to boycott a nationwide election widely regarded as fraudulent.

A man who installs satellite dishes, which technically are banned by the regime but in wide use, told Agence France- Presse the microwaves used to block the signals "have never been so strong."

The move comes on the heels of coverage by foreign radio and TV channels of the "Iran Freedom Walk," from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in which participants called for peaceful regime change and for Iranians to stay away from the polls June 17.

"As the mullahs get closer to the election, they are getting more nervous, because the planned protests, which seem to be focused on people staying away and boycotting the election, show that they're tremendously unpopular," said Jerome Corsi, who organized the two-week walk through the newly formed Iran Freedom Foundation.

Corsi, author of "Atomic Iran," believes an estimated 40 million of Iran's 70 million population were within reach of their voices and messages of support during the 200-mile journey.

The Freedom Walk became a subject of household discussion throughout Iran, he said, as e-mails and phone messages of support flowed into the foundation from Iran and from the expatriate Iranian community worldwide.

Along with independent opposition radio and TV broadcasters, coverage of the walk included Voice of America radio. Morovati of the Los Angeles-based KRSI Radio Sedaye Iran spoke at the walk's kick-off in Philadelphia and and the final rally in Lafayette Park, across from the White House. KRSI also assigned its Washington, D.C., reporter to broadcast from the route.

In Iran, police and militiamen launch occassional crackdowns on the satellite dishes that have sprouted on rooftops in the past several years, but it is seen as a losing battle, AFP reported.

Instead, authorities appear to have shifted their strategy to blocking out the opposition channels.

"Day and night, the opposition radio and television stations keep calling on our people to boycott the election," said an angry Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani, a top cleric, in his Friday prayer sermon last week.

Experts believe that while Iran may be unable to totally block the signals, they can beam so much noise over the city's skyline that broadcasts suffer lengthy drop-outs, AFP said.

The primary targets are the mostly Los Angeles-based stations sympathetic to the rule of the late shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Other channels opposed by the mullahs include the MTV-inspired Persian Music Channel.

The jamming also is causing a deterioration in local channels sanctioned by the regime, a shrinkage of mobile service and concerns about the impact on health.

The World Health Organisation cautions that microwave frequencies could "induce heating in body tissues which may provoke various physiological and thermoregulatory responses, including a decreased ability to perform mental or physical tasks as body temperature increases."

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