Ahmadinejad, who is due to arrive in New York Sunday for the United Nations General Assembly, said Tehran's nuclear ambitions were open and being conducted in accordance with the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency.

"You have to appreciate we don't need a nuclear bomb. We don't need that. What need do we have for a bomb?" the Iranian leader said in the interview, according to a transcript released by CBS television.

"In political relations right now, the nuclear bomb is of no use."

He added that there was no reason to think that the United States and Iran were on a collision course to war over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, which have been roundly condemned by the international community.

"It's wrong to think that Iran and the US are walking towards war. Who says so? Why should we go to war? There is no war in the offing."

"Our plan and program is very transparent. We are under the supervision of the agency. Everything is on the table. We have nothing to hide," he said, adding: "Our activities are very peaceful."

"The time of the bomb is passed," he added.

Iran's nuclear ambitions have been under international scrutiny and put Tehran under a raft of United Nations-backed sanctions, especially due to the Islamic regime's attitude towards Israel.

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map and called into question the scale of the Holocaust.

He said that differences with the United States and much of the rest of the international community could be solved through diplomatic negotiations.

"If you have a difference of opinion you can use logic to resolve your differences," he said.

Iran earlier bluntly warned the United States against launching an attack, saying that US forces in the region were well within the reach of its missiles.

"Today, the United States must know that their 200,000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are within the reach of Iran's fire," said Yahya Rahim Safavi, the top military adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"When the Americans were beyond our shores, they were not within our reach but today it is very easy for us to deal them blows," he said according to the Mehr news agency.

His comments came at the start of an annual defense week, which Iran marked on Saturday by showing off its military prowess at a parade in Tehran -- including a new longer-range missile that could reach Israel.

The Islamic republic's arch foes the United States and Israel have never ruled out military action against Iran, although US officials say they want to solve the current crisis diplomatically.

His visit to the United States has been engulfed in controversy, with his scheduled appearances at the United Nations and a top university on Monday igniting impassioned objections, notably from US politicians and Jewish groups.

earlier related report
Iran and Israel face off over nuclear weapons
Iran called for UN inspectors to be dispatched to verify whether Israel has nuclear weapons, in a heated showdown with the Jewish state at a meeting of the UN atomic agency Friday.

The face-off between the two nations came as Arab states condemned Israel for hiding an atomic arsenal, at a general conference of the 144-nation International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh told the conference that IAEA inspectors should be sent "to Israel to verify who is telling the truth."

Israel neither confirms nor denies it has nuclear weapons, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had hinted in a German television interview in December 2006 that Israel did in fact have the bomb.

Soltanieh's comments came after Israeli ambassador Israel Michaeli told the conference that Arab speakers' assertions that Olmert had said Israel had nuclear weapons were "lies".

As for Arab condemnation of Israel for failing to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and accept IAEA safeguard inspections, Michaeli said: "Those who call for the elimination of Israel have no moral standing when they criticise Israeli policies aimed at defending Israel's very existence."

The 50-year-old IAEA's tradition of consensus on decisions has broken down over Middle East issues, with debate now highly politicized.

Arab states had Thursday pushed through a resolution clearly aimed at Israel, calling for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons.

But it had to go to a vote, even though Israel backs a nuclear weapons-free-zone (NWFZ) within the framework of a Middle East peace settlement.

In the end, the resolution was backed by 53 votes, with two against and 47 abstentions.

Some Western and non-aligned diplomats said Iran was agitating behind the scenes for a showdown over Israel to distract from its own civilian nuclear programme, which is suspected of aiming to make nuclear weapons

On Friday, Omani ambassador Salim Mohammed Al-Riyami presented the agenda item "Israeli nuclear capabilities and threat" saying there was concern over the "failure of the universality" of the NPT since Israel refuses to sign it.

"Israel still benefits from total freedom to develop its nuclear capacities," Al-Riyami told the IAEA, which uses safeguard agreements to monitor compliance with the treaty.

Al-Riyami had said in a document submitted along with the agenda item: "The policies of successive Israeli governments have obstructed the peace process in the Middle East and all initiatives to free the region . . . of weapons of mass destruction, and in particular of nuclear weapons, have failed."

The IAEA also debated a resolution on safeguards, with Western nations pushing through language on strengthening IAEA inspections.

But non-aligned nations which back Iran got the wording weakened somewhat, dropping for instance the word "universally" in a call for strengthened safeguards.

The resolution finally passed with 80 votes in favour, zero against and 12 abstentions.

The general conference approves broad policy lines for the IAEA.

But the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors, which meets separately from the general conference, makes decisions for the agency on how policy is implemented.

In the past at the IAEA's general conference, Arab states introduce a resolution on the Israeli nuclear threat but withdraw it in the face of strong Western opposition.

It is then postponed to the following year in return for Israel agreeing to the call for a NWFZ in the Middle East.

This arrangement fell apart for the first time at last year's general conference, when the NWFZ resolution was forced to a vote and adopted by a vote of 89-2.

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