Iran charges West abuses UN nuclear role

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 20 (Reuters) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused the West of abusing the United Nations to try to deny Iran the right to peaceful nuclear technology which Western states enjoyed.

''The abuse of the Security Council, as an instrument of threat and coercion, is indeed a source of grave concern,'' he told the UN General Assembly.

He said the United States, Britain and others themselves benefited from nuclear energy and the fuel cycle. ''Some of them have abused nuclear technology for non-peaceful ends including the production of nuclear bombs, and some even have a bleak record of using them against humanity.'' Earlier, US President George W Bush accused Iran's rulers of spending their resources on funding terrorists and pursuing nuclear weapons and demanded that Iran abandon what he called ''its nuclear weapons ambitions''.

REUTERS DKS BST0552