Tehran  - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday demanded than an international war crimes tribunal be held against Israeli leaders who ordered military operations in the Gaza Strip in December and January.

"The first step is breaking the immunity of this criminal regime (Israel) and holding a war crime tribunal against its leaders over the crimes and massacre in Gaza," the Ayatollah said at the

inauguration ceremony of a conference on Palestine.

The demand by the Iranian leader has also been sent by the Iranian foreign ministry as an official letter to the United Nations.

"If aggressors were sentenced by an international court, then the way for further aggressions would be blocked," said Khamenei, who in line with the Iranian constitution has the final say on all state affairs.

The Iranian prosecutor general's office earlier this week said it had asked Interpol to issue arrest warrants for 34 top Israeli political officials and 114 military commanders, including outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak, on charges of war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

Interpol denied having received any such request from Iran or any of its 187 member countries.

The two-day conference in Tehran is attended by officials from Islamic and non-Islamic countries aimed at supporting the Palestinians and rebuilding the war-shattered Gaza Strip and held a few days after the donor conference in Egypt for the Gaza Strip.

Tehran has termed the Egypt conference as hypocritical because it was held by countries which supported "the Zionist regime's [Israel's] crimes" and in a country [Egypt] which "did not even open its borders to the people of Gaza."

The Iranian leader also criticized both the UN for its silence over the Gaza attacks and some Arab states for not having supported the Palestinians in the conflict in December and January in Gaza.

"Some say the Palestinian issue is solely an Arabic issue but if some Arab states do not help the residents in Gaza and even cooperate with the enemy (Israel), then neither Arabs nor (non-Arab) Muslims (like Iran) will and cannot accept such an approach," Khamenei said without specifying any country by name.

"The only way to settle the Palestinian problem is continued resistance (against Israel)," the ayatollah added.

Khamenei also reiterated Iran's rejection of Israel's sovereignty and support for Gaza's ruling Islamist militant group Hamas.

"The West should acknowledge diplomatic norms and acknowledge the election results in Palestine in favour of Palestine. We cannot reject democracy just because the results are not suitable," the Iranian leader said.

He also rejected argumentations that Israel has in the meantime become a geopolitical fact and said that during recent decades, many countries in the former Soviet Union and in the Balkan states "have returned to their real national roots." (dpa)