The EU on Tuesday condemned Iran for continued human-rights abuses on the eve of a meeting between the two sides over the Islamic Republic's controversial fledgling nuclear capability.
In a statement issued by the British presidency, the 25-member bloc said that greater respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms was essential to improve relations between the EU and Iran.
"The EU is deeply concerned that the human-rights situation in Iran has not improved in any significant respect in recent years, and in many respects has worsened," it said.
The EU said that the death penalty was still used frequently, even for minor crimes, and with executions carried out in public, while more child offenders were put to death this year than in any recent years.
Freedom of expression was severely curtailed, with widespread restrictions on the press and Internet. Reports of torture were still being received, it added.
Senior figures in the Iranian regime reported "significant failings" in how this year's presidential election was run and candidate selection was not democratic.
"Whilst the EU recognizes the limited efforts made by some authorities in Iran to improve the administration of justice, it remains deeply concerned at the lack of effective action to reform the laws, institutions and official practices that allow human-rights violations to occur," the EU said.
The EU began talks with Iran on human rights in 2002 but said it was disappointed with the lack of progress and that Tehran had not agreed to a further round of talks after the last round last year.
Relations were strained further over Iran's insistence on its rights to make nuclear fuel, which the West fears could be used to make atom bombs.
Talks with the EU negotiating trio Britain, Germany and France broke off in August when Iran resumed uranium conversion, the first step in enrichment.
Meanwhile, having outraged the international community by denying the holocaust and Israel's right to exist, Iran's combative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has launched an offensive against new western targets -- George Michael, Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees.
In a decree that threatens to turn the clock back to 1979, when Iran was gripped by the Islamic revolution, Ahmadinejad has ordered state broadcasters to stop playing "decadent" Western music and to favor "fine Iranian music" instead.
The order, issued by the High Council of Cultural Revolution, which the president heads, is the strongest signal yet that Ahmad-inejad intends to match his ideol-ogical rhetoric with a cultural and social crackdown.
The ban will affect an eclectic swath of Western artists, including George Michael, Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees, whose songs are frequently heard on national television and radio. Instrumental versions of Michael's Careless Whisper, Clapton's Rush and the Bee Gees' How Deep Is Your Love are commonly broadcast as accompaniment to a range of Iranian programming.
"The promotion of decadent and Western music should be avoided and the stress put on authorized, artistic, classic and fine Iranian music," the decree states. It urges broadcasters to play "relaxing themes and memorable music from the revolution."
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