The Hollywood film, which has broken U.S. box office records, is an effects-ladenretelling of a battle in which a small Greek army resisted a Persian invasion.

Iranian media, officials and bloggers have united in denouncing the film,which comes at a time of mounting tensions between Washingtonand Tehran overthe latter's nuclearprogram.

One newspaper condemned the movie as an attack on theIranians' culture because it shows their ancestors as bloodthirsty"savages."

"Hollywooddeclares war on Iranians," said the headline in the reformist daily Ayandeh-No.

"It seeks to tell people that Iran, which is in the Axis of Evil now,has for long been the source of evil and modern Iranians' ancestors are theugly murderous dumb savages you see in '300'," stated the paper in afront-page article.

A cultural advisor to President MahmoudAhmadinejad branded the movie as an "American psychological warfareagainst Iran."

But Iranian culture is strong enough to withstand the assault, JavadShamaghdari told the semi-official Farsnews agency.

"American cultural officials thought they could get mental satisfactionby plundering Iran'shistoric past and insulting this civilization," he said.

"Following the Islamic Revolution in Iran,Hollywood and cultural authorities in the U.S. initiatedstudies to figure out how to attack Iranian culture.

"Certainly, the recent movie is a product of such studies." 

Three lawmakers in the Iranian parliament have also written to the foreignministry to protest the production and screening of this "anti-Iranian Hollywood film".

The movie has already proved a major box office hit in Greece and the United States, where it earnedalmost $71m in its first weekend, making it the best ever March opening inNorth American cinemas. 

This is not the first time Iranhas protested over the portrayal of its ancient history by the West. 

The Iranians were angered by the 2004 epic Alexander which showed theMacedonian general easily conquering the Persian Empire, and a 2005 Britishnewspaper review of an exhibition of antiquities that branded ancient Persia the"Evil Empire".

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