Effective Sunday through to next Thursday, drivers will only be able to use their cars in a vast area of central Tehran on odd or even days according to the last figure on the number plate, Iran's police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam said on state television.

Cars with an odd number plate will be allowed on Sunday in the expanded restricted area, where most businesses and offices are located.

Officials hope this will help clear a hideous blanket of brown-yellow haze -- denser than usual this week due to a total lack of wind.

Schools in the urban sprawl of 10 million people have been shut down since Tuesday while office workers were told to stay indoors for two days.

Officials also said the aging rundown cars that spew more poisonous gases into the air will be banned from even appearing in the city.

Many of the two million plus vehicles in the city are more than 20 years old and guzzle cheap subsidised petrol -- which costs a paltry nine US cents a litre, or 34 cents a gallon -- at an alarming rate.

Private car ownership has also exploded and the public transport system does not provide adequate coverage to many parts of Tehran.

Pollution alerts are becoming increasingly common in the city, with air quality deemed unhealthy for at least 100 days of the year. Complaints of asthma, allergies and respiratory ailments are also on the rise.

The odd-even ban has been applied for short periods in the past years, but failed as the residents complained about the impracticality of such an scheme.

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