US policy causes instability in West Asia:Iran

MUNICH, Germany, Feb 11 (Reuters) US policy in the West Asia has brought only instability and insecurity to the region, a top Iranian official said today in echoes of similar criticism by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

''The (US) policy of denial, isolation, adventurism, sanctions can only serve instability in our region,'' Iran's chief nuclear negotiator and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani said in a speech yesterday.

''The terrorists are justifying their presence in Iraq because of the occupation and so the Americans announce they will send more troops ... I don't know how we can break this vicious circle,'' he told an annual gathering of top security and defence officials in southern Germany.

A US official dismissed Larijani's comments, which came at the same conference where Putin also blasted Washington for exacerbating tensions with a policy of world domination.

''The speech was typical Iran. This speech was an example of why Iran is so isolated in the region,'' the official, who declined to be named, said.

The United States accuses Iran of supporting insurgents in Iraq, a charge Tehran denies.

Larijani also said insecurity caused by the United States had an economic impact as well.

''Any insecurity in our region is ... an impediment to economic growth,'' Larijani said in response to a question.

Larijani chided the United States for the CIA-sponsored coup that toppled Iranian nationalist President Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 and ushered the U.S.-backed Shah into power until the 1979 Islamic revolution exactly 28 years ago.

Larijani was asked why Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had doubted the Holocaust and called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

''I think there is an overreaction to the issue of the Holocaust,'' he said, adding it was a historical matter.

''I cannot understand why such sensitivity is shown. Let people talk and get their answers,'' Larijani said.

He said he neither accepted nor rejected the idea and that there were more important global issues to deal with a sensitive issue in Germany where Holocaust denial is crime punishable with prison.

''Making a direct link that Iran is willing to threaten Israel is wrong,'' he said.

Regarding the country's nuclear programme, which the United States and its Western allies fear is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, Larijani said it was a peaceful programme and would be used only to generate electricity.

He also reiterated that Iran would not suspend its uranium enrichment programme but was open to ways of assuring the world it could not produce highly enriched uranium fuel for weapons in its enrichment centrifuges.

''I have read American scientists saying there are centrifuges that can only enrich to a certain level. That is acceptable,'' he said.

He also said an Iranian proposal to make its Natanz enrichment plant an international consortium so that other countries could be actively involved in its nuclear fuel work was still valid.

Larijani was expected to meet German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to discuss the nuclear stand-off between Iran and the West.

REUTERS SY MIR KP1739