Iran: 'We're not making a nuclear bomb'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that "the future belongs to Iran," and that they have no plans to make a nuclear bomb.

"We believe, whether you like to hear this or not, that United States administrations, consecutive administrations, must recognise that Iran is a big power and accept it as such," he said.

"Having said that, we consider ourselves to be a human force and a cultural power. And hence a friend of other nations. We have never sought to dominate others or violate the rights of any other country."

The comments came on the first day of his visit to the United States to attend the annual general assembly of the United Nations this week.

He insisted that his government does not want an atomic bomb - something he has said in the past - and that Iran is only seeking peace and a nuclear-weapons-free world.

The US accuses Iran of hiding plans to build a nuclear bomb; Iran denies that and says it's working only toward building nuclear power plants.

Ahmadinejad asserted that international nuclear regulators had never found proof that Iran is pursuing an atomic bomb.

"If we had planned or wanted to build a nuclear bomb we are brave enough to say that we want it. But we never do want it. We are saying that the existing arsenal of nuclear bombs has to be destroyed as well," Ahmadinejad said.