An influential Iranian state-run newspaper on Tuesday reiterated and expanded on its earlier derogatory remarks about French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, spurring Iran's Foreign Ministry to warn news media to refrain from insulting foreign dignitaries, The Washington Post reports.

The Kayhan daily first called Bruni-Sarkozy "a prostitute" on Saturday. The paper repeated that remark Tuesday and added that the first lady, a former model and pop star, "deserves to die" because of her "perverted lifestyle" and her public support for an Iranian woman who has been sentenced to death by stoning.

The comments angered the French Foreign Ministry, which called them "unacceptable." Ramin Mehmanparast, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, responded by urging the national news media to use restraint and avoid "indecent words."

"The media can properly criticize the wrong and hostile policies of other countries by refraining from using insulting words. This is not correct," Mehmanparast said.

But the repeated allegations by the paper, which is headed by a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, indicate that hard-liners have launched an offensive against the mounting international criticism over the Islamic republic's controversial capital punishments and family laws, Iranian activists say.

Bruni-Sarkozy is an international figure who married French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008 and has had relationships with people such as Mick Jagger, Kevin Costner and Eric Clapton. In 2007, she told a French magazine she became easily "bored with monogamy."

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