TEHRAN— Iran's parliament approved a 20-million-dollar budget on Sunday to expose alleged US and British human rights abuses, state media reported.

The sum will be spent on "alerting the international community to numerous human rights abuses by these two countries and supporting progressive movements standing against illegal acts of the US and British governments."

It would also target US and British "conspiracies" against the Islamic regime, the parliament said, adding that the intelligence ministry would be in charge of the initiative.

The move, mirroring past US-funded initiatives, comes amid international criticism of Iran over its crackdown on post-election protests in which dozens were killed in clashes with security forces and thousands of people detained.

At least four prisoners reportedly died in custody and the opposition said some detainees were raped.

Iran blames the unrest, sparked by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June, on the United States and Britain, charging that they sought a "soft overthrow" of the regime through street protests.

The opposition charged the poll was massively rigged and hundreds of thousands of people poured into streets, plunging the 30-year-old Islamic republic into its worst political crisis.