Tehran - Iran on Sunday condemned the bomb attack on a hotel in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, calling it a "terrorist act," ISNA news agency reported.

Tehran - Iran on Sunday categorically denied Western media reports that the country was making nuclear warheads, official news agency IRNA reported.

"Reports of Iran making or using nuclear warheads are totally baseless as we regard nuclear weapons as useless and not in line with our national interests," the air force commander of Iran's revolutionary guards, General Hossein Salami, told IRNA at a military parade in Tehran.

Tehran - Iran on Sunday exhibited its missiles and other military hardware at the annual parade marking the Iraqi invasion in 1980, which led to a devastating eight-year war.

Military parades and war games have increased in the face of perceived threats from the United States and Israel against the country's nuclear sites, after Tehran has rejected calls by world powers to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.

Tehran- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday continued his tirades against Israel by saying that "all crimes and criminals in history" were summarized in the Israeli regime.

"The Zionist (Israeli) regime's spirit is the summation of all ugliness in the world and the continuation of its existence is based on aggression and occupation," Mehr news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

"We see in this regime the summation of all crimes and criminals in history," he added.

Dubai - Five Dubai-based companies are among 16 firms and individuals accused by the United States of exporting items to Iran that could be used to make weapons and explosives, a news report said Saturday.

The traders are alleged to have purchased US-made "dual use" goods and transported them to Iran via the United Arab Emirates, Britain, Malaysia, Germany and Singapore, the Abu Dhabi-based The National newspaper said.

While Iran is subject to UN sanctions related primarily to material used in the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction, it is also covered by unilateral US sanctions, which prohibit the sale of most goods of US origin to the Islamic republic.

Brussels  - The European Union on Friday threw its diplomatic weight behind the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying that it was gravely concerned by Iran's refusal to cooperate with IAEA inspectors of its nuclear programme.

The EU "deplores" the fact that Iran has refused to suspend nuclear activities and shares the "grave concern" of IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei that Iran "is not answering questions relating to possible activities linked to the design and building of nuclear weapons," a statement on behalf of the 27-member bloc said.