Tel Aviv  - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is one of the "one of the most evil and horrible people of modern history," and Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu will not be present when he addresses the United Nations Wednesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres said Tuesday,

Ahmadinejad, Peres told students at an agricultural college in northern Israel, "lies though his teeth about the existence of the Holocaust and curses Israel," and "is pessimistic and has no future."

The Israeli president's verbal attack on Ahmadinejad comes a few days after the Iranian leader called the Holocaust, the systematic genocide of Europe's Jews during World War II, "a false claim, a fairy tale, used as a pretext for crimes against humanity."

Israel regards Iran as its biggest strategic threat, given Tehran's nuclear programme and Ahmadinejad's frequent statements that the Jewish state should be wiped off the map.

Although Russian President Dimitry Medvedev told CNN last week that Peres had told him Israel does not intend any strike against Iran, Israel Defence Force chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi said Monday that all options regarding Iran were still on the table.

"We all understand that the best way of coping is through international sanctions ... I hope that Iran will understand this. I think that if not, Israel has the right to defend itself, and all options are open," Lieutenant General Ashkenazi said.

"The IDF's working premise is that we have to be prepared for that possibility, and that is exactly what we are doing," he added.  dpa