A man and a woman died of asphyxiation caused by tear gas grenades fired by Bahrain's security forces to disperse protests in Shiite villages, the country's main opposition group said on Saturday.

Ahmed Abdul Nabi, 31, died after a tear gas grenade landed in his family's house in the village of Shahrakan, said a statement by al-Wefaq, citing family members.

A Bahraini youth died on Saturday of a police gunshot wound sustained at the start of the month, the Gulf state's main Shiite opposition group Wefaq said.

Condemning state "repression of demonstrations calling for political reforms," it said Saida Fadhel Mirza al-Obeidi, 22, was struck in the head on March 1 in Diraz, a village east of Manama.

Bahraini police dispersed protesters who made several attempts Tuesday to mark the anniversary of last year's uprising by marching to the site of the protest that was brutally crushed, witnesses said.

Several marches took off from Shiite villages on the outskirts of Manama hoping to reach the capital's Pearl Square, where democracy demonstrators camped out for a month last year before being forcefully driven out.

Iran has summoned Bahrain's envoy to Tehran to protest a demonstration outside its embassy in Manama on the anniversary of a Shiite uprising in the Gulf Arab kingdom, media reported.

"Iran has submitted an official protest to the Bahraini charge d'affaires over the gathering of a number of known people in front of the Iranian embassy in Manama who were shouting slogans against our nation's official," Iran's foreign ministry said in a quoted statement.

Thousands of Bahrainis have begun a week-long rally in a Shiite village, an activist said Sunday, 10 days ahead of the first anniversary of the start of pro-democracy protest which was brutally crushed.

"The large number of people who participated yesterday (Saturday) wanted to deliver a message to the government that people are determined to keep up the demands that they made on February 14" last year, leading Shiite opposition activist Matar Matar told AFP.

Bahrain's interior ministry said Sunday a blast occurred inside a minibus parked near the British Embassy, but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries.

A brief statement posted by the ministry said the explosion occurred in a public parking area near the British diplomatic compound in the capital Manama. Investigators sealed off the area.

Bahraini police clashed with protesters in at least two Shiite villages as tensions escalated ahead of Wednesday's release of a report on government misconduct during a protest crackdown, activists said.

Early morning protests erupted in village of Aali on the outskirts of the capital Manama, where rights activists and an Agence France Presse correspondent said police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators.

A Bahraini special court sentenced Thursday a protester to death and another to life in jail after convicting them of killing a policeman, BNA state news agency said.

The same court sentenced 20 Shiite medics to between five and 15 years in prison for their roles in a Shiite-led month-long protest which authorities quashed in mid-March.

The foreign ministers of Bahrain and Iran met in New York late Monday for their first talks since the two countries withdrew their ambassadors in a row over the crushing of Shiite-led protests in Manama, Iran said on Tuesday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told his Bahraini counterpart that the Sunni minority government should open a dialogue with the Gulf kingdom's Shiite majority, his ministry quoted him as saying.

Opposition leader Hassan Mashaima returned to Bahrain from self-imposed exile on Saturday, as thousands of demonstrators marched in the capital Manama to demand the Sunni rulers stand down.

"The time has come for true unity and our priority today is for the opposition to sit down with the protesters at Pearl Square and clearly set our demands," Mashaima, who had been in Britain, told reporters at his home.