TEHRAN, April 21 (Reuters) - Iran has hanged four people convicted of drug trafficking in the country's southeast, a news agency said on Monday, a week after Amnesty International listed the Islamic state as the world's second most prolific executioner in 2007.

The semi-official Fars News Agency said they were put to death in a prison in the city of Kerman, in a region known as a transit route for drugs smuggled from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Western markets. It did not make clear when it happened.

Murder, adultery, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Iran's sharia law, practised since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

In a report published last Tuesday, Amnesty said Iran had executed at least 317 people last year. China, the world's leading executioner, carried out at least 470 death sentences in 2007, the rights group said.

European governments and Western rights groups have criticised Iran for an increasing number of hangings since authorities launched a clampdown on "immoral behaviour" in July.

Iran rejects accusations it is violating human rights and accuses the West of double standards and hypocrisy. (Reporting by Hossein Jaseb; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Peter Millership)

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