Iran says to respond if US labels Guards "terrorist"

TEHRAN, Aug 28 (Reuters) Iran would respond if the United States were to label the Islamic state's Revolutionary Guards a ''terrorist'' force, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today.

''They know that any action against the Iranian nation would be faced with a proper response,'' Ahmadinejad, himself a former Guards commander, told a news conference.

But he also said he believed it was ''highly unlikely that the American government will take such an illogical approach ...

it would be a joke I guess.'' US officials said this month Washington may soon name the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist group, a move that would enable the United States to target the force's finances.

REUTERS LPB BST1956