Iran to "cut hands" off any attacker, president says

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president said that even before its enemies "get their hands on the trigger" the country's military would cut them off, media said on Sunday, in a growing war of words that has intensified Middle East tension.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the comment a day after a senior Iranian official said Iran would strike Israel and U.S. bases in the region if the Islamic Republic was attacked over its disputed nuclear programme.

U.S. leaders have not ruled out military options if diplomacy fails to assuage fears about Iran's nuclear activities, which the world's fourth-largest oil producer says are intended only to produce electricity.

Washington and other powers have offered negotiations to end the dispute but say Iran must first halt sensitive atomic work, a demand Iran has rejected. Ahmadinejad said that, if anyone sets conditions for talks, it should be Tehran.

"Before the enemies get their hands on the trigger the armed forces will cut off their hands," the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as telling reporters.

Israel, long assumed to have its own atomic arsenal, has sworn to prevent Iran from emerging as a nuclear-armed power.

Last month it staged an air force exercise that aroused speculation about a possible assault on Iranian nuclear sites.

Iran has vowed to strike back at Tel Aviv, as well as U.S. interests and shipping, if it is attacked, asserting that missiles fired during war games last week included ones that could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the region.

A SMALL PART

Ahmadinejad said the weaponry displayed in the Revolutionary Guards' missile exercise, which was condemned by Western powers, was only a small part of Iran's defence capability.

"In the event of necessity, additional parts of our defence capability will be put on display for the world to see."

As part of a new diplomatic effort to end the row, the United States and five other powers last month offered Iran economic and other benefits if it halts its most sensitive atomic activities, something Tehran says it will not do.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili is expected to meet European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Geneva on July 19 for talks on the long-running dispute.

"The negotiations ... must lead to the defining of the framework of the main negotiations," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said, according to the state broadcaster.

Washington cut ties with Iran after the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution, but Ahmadinejad expressed willingness to hold direct talks with U.S. President George W. Bush.

The United States says Iran must suspend uranium enrichment, which can have both civilian and military uses, before they can sit down and talk about the nuclear and other issues.

"As I have already said, we have absolutely no need for an intermediary in negotiations with others ... I am ready to hold direct negotiations with Mr Bush," Ahmadinejad said.

However, he added, "if anyone should want to set conditions (for entering talks) it would be us".