Washington  - US President George W Bush reiterated his pledge that the United States will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons in a wide ranging speech on the Middle East Friday.

"For the safety of our people and the peace of the world, America will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon," Bush said at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Bush suggested the US invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein prompted Iran to slow its nuclear ambitions, only to resume them after the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2006.

"The defeat of Saddam also appears to have changed the calculation of Iran," Bush said.

TEHRAN, Dec. 5  -- Claims made by the United Arab Emirates that were anti-Iranian in nature were ill-advised, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Friday.

The Iranian official slammed the Arab federation for supporting the policies of the United States and Britain regarding Iran, the Islamic Republic News Agency said.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5  -- U. S. President George Bush reiterated Friday his pledge that the United States would not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

"We have made our bottom-line clear. For the safety of our people and the peace of the world, America will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon," Bush said in remarks prepared for the Saban Forum in Washington.

Bush said he looks forward to "a Middle East where our friends are strengthened and the extremists are discredited, where economies are open and prosperity is widespread, and where all people enjoy the life of liberty ... ."

Tehran - The formation of the new US cabinet was in no way compatible with president-elect Barack Obama's slogan of change, state-run Iranian television network IRIB said in a commentary on Tuesday.

The network said that appointing Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and keeping Robert Gates as defence secretary had nothing to do with change but was continuing the same policies as the current US administration.

Calling the two warmongers, IRIB said that Clinton voted in favour of the military strike against Iraq and no changes could be expected in Iraq under Gates as defence secretary.

Nicosia, Dec. 2 : Gholamreza Agazadeh, the Head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, speaking at a conference in Tehran on Sunday proposed developing light-water nuclear plants jointly with neighboring Gulf Cooperation Council states.

“ Iran is ready to provide very soon a comprehensive plan for the proposal, if it were approved in principle by the Persian Gulf littoral states,” Agazadeh said in the course of an international seminar on nuclear plants and environmental issues.

Tehran - Iran primarily invests in education to combat AIDS, Iranian Health Minister Kamran Baqeri-Lankrani said Monday on the occasion of World AIDS day.

Iran puts priority on public education by cultural and religious figures to fight the disease, the minister said in a speech carried by ISNA news agency.

Baqeri-Lankrani said parents were being educated to pass on all necessary information on AIDS to their children.