The announcement of the toll, which previously stood at between 30,000 and 35,000 dead, was given during Khamenei's second tour of the destroyed southeastern city aimed at accelerating relief and reconstruction efforts.

"In this incident, up until now 41,000 of the people of Bam have been killed, and there is a possibility that this could increase to 45,000," Mohammad Mohammadi-Gholpayghani, head of Khamenei's office, told the state news agency IRNA.

"This is a great catastrophe," he was quoted as saying, vowing that reconstruction work would be accelerated.

Recovery crews in Bam have continued to pull out bodies as they work to clear away the rubble from the city, 80 percent of which was flattened.

The city, whose historic mud-brick citadel was devastated, was once home to 100,000 residents.

The number of people injured has been put at around 30,000.

"So far valuable actions have been taken by the officials, but a lot of work remains and requires effort and ambition," Khamenei said a Friday prayer sermon at Bam's mosque during his four-hour visit.

"The new Bam should be dignified, proud and solid," Khamenei was quoted as saying, before he took a tour of the hastily-dug mass graves containing the bodies of the dead and carried out his prayers at the site.

And in a meeting with local officials, Khamenei bluntly told them that reconstruction work was not going fast enough.

"I toured the place, and I witnessed your efforts, but it is evident to me that a lot of work has not been done," he was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA.

A senior provincial official meanwhile announced the rebuilding of Bam would take two years, and said the government had opened up tenders to Iranian and foreign companies.

"Bam is going to be rebuilt in the same place," said Mehdi Jahangiri, deputy governor-general in charge of planning for Kerman province.

"The private sector has also been invited, but under the supervision of the government. Private companies from Iran and outside Iran can participate in reconstruction through tenders," he told IRNA.

And amid ongoing problems with "opportunists" from nearby areas seeking to steal some of the massive amounts of aid supplies -- especially tents -- that poured in from across Iran and overseas, he said the police were cracking down.

"The police and intelligence service have started the task of identifying opportunists," he said. "Since Wednesday more than 100 tents have been seized back from these people, and this trend is increasing.

"A great number of locals are cooperating," he added. "There is a probability we may give them a 24-hour deadline, and after that we will deal with them seriously."

IRNA said that some 10,000 people unaffected by the quake have descended on Bam, posing as survivors and seeking to get their hands on tents, blankets and free food.

And according to senior sources in the Iranian Red Crescent, of the 100,000 tents which were distributed in the city, only a "small proportion" can be accounted for.

TERRA.WIRE