AFP - Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi on Tuesday accused the Islamic republic of pressuring her family to try to stop her overseas campaign against the regime.

She said her husband had been banned from leaving the country and all his bank accounts had been closed, even though he has nothing to do with politics.

"He is just an engineer who has nothing to do with my activities," Ebadi told reporters in the South Korean capital.

Speaking through an interpreter, she said her husband had come under pressure from the Iranian government "to gag me" with warnings from security authorities that she would not be safe anywhere in the world.

Ebadi has accused Iran of freezing her bank accounts and confiscating her Nobel laureate's medal, awarded in 2003 in recognition of her campaign for democracy and human rights in her homeland.

She has been an outspoken critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose re-election in June sparked mass opposition protests. Ebadi left Iran on the eve of the poll to attend a conference in Spain, and has not returned since.

She said Tuesday she would go home after staying abroad for a while. "My home, husband and family are all in Iran. So I will go back someday."

In an interview with AFP last week in London, Ebadi said the Iranian demand that she pay more than 400,000 dollars (270,000 euros) in tax on her Nobel prize money came only shortly after the presidential election.

In Seoul, she repeated accusations that authorities had confiscated the medal.

"I lodged a protest with judges because this is clearly against Iranian laws," she said. "Iran has no right to take such an illegal action. I hope Judges will accept my protest."

Iranian authorities have denied seizing the Nobel medal from a bank deposit box in Tehran, although the foreign ministry implicitly confirmed that Ebadi's assets had been frozen because she had failed to pay tax on them.

Norway, the home of the Nobel prizes, has accused Iran of confiscating the medal and diploma and summoned its envoy to voice a protest.

Ebadi urged Iran to stop persecuting rights activists and respect the international convention on human rights.

She also called on Tehran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on its disputed nuclear programme.

The stand-off between Iran and the West intensified last week when the United Nations nuclear watchdog censured Tehran and demanded it immediately halt construction of a newly-revealed uranium enrichment plant.

"I believe the Iranian government should accept the IAEA's proposals. By doing so, Iran will become more peaceful," Ebadi said.