Bush: 'Axis of evil' member Iran is 'real threat'

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush called Iran "a real threat," repeating his charge from 2002 that it is part of an "axis of evil," and urged Tehran to prove it does not seek nuclear weapons.

Washington accuses the Islamic republic of using a civilian nuclear program to hide a quest for atomic weapons, and has charged that Iran is a destabilizing force in Iraq. Tehran has denied that it seeks nuclear arms.

"I called it (Iran) part of the 'axis of evil' for a reason," Bush said in an interview with Fox News. "It's a real threat."

The US president first lumped Iran with North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq in an "axis of evil" during his 2002 State of the Union speech to the US Congress.

His comments Wednesday came amid an escalating war of words with Tehran, whose hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stoked outrage in the West by calling Israel a "tumor" in the Middle East and saying that the Holocaust is a myth.

Asked how he would deal with Iran, Bush replied: "We continue to work the diplomatic front."

"I'm concerned about theocracy that has got little transparency, a country whose president has declared the destruction of Israel as part of their foreign policy, and a country that will not listen to the demands of the free world to get rid of its ambitions to have a nuclear weapon," said Bush.

Asked whether he had a message for authorities in Tehran, Bush said: "I would hope they'd be wise enough to begin to listen to the people and allow the people to participate in their government."

Ahmadinejad jolted international opinion with comments in a televised speech in which he also said that the state of Israel should be moved away from the Muslim world.

The comments also sparked condemnation from Europe, which has taken the lead in efforts to negotiate an accord with Iran over its nuclear programme.

"The comments are wholly unacceptable and we condemn them unreservedly. They have no place in civilized political debate," said Britain's Minister for Europe, Douglas Alexander, whose country currently holds the EU presidency.

With Germany, France and Britain tentatively due to hold talks with Iran over its disputed nuclear activities, US and European officials said Ahmadinejad had reinforced suspicions about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the Iranian president's remarks were "shocking and totally unacceptable".

In October, Ahmadinejad said Israel "must be wiped off the map" and last week he described the country as a "tumor" and said it should be moved to Germany or Austria.

On Wednesday, he said: "They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God, religions and the prophets."

The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Paul Spiegel, called Ahmadinejad's speech "repulsive".

"I lost my sister and several other relatives in the Holocaust. Words fail one when one hears such unbearable utterances," he told the Tageszeitung newspaper.

The French government said Ahmadinejad's "declarations did not contribute to establishing a climate of confidence between Iran and the international community."

Austrian President Heinz Fischer said Ahmadinejad's verbal attacks against Jews and Israel were "unacceptable".

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman said Ahmadinejad's "perverse vision" should make clear to the world that the Iranian regime posed a dangerous threat."