"Those who launch today their bombs and missiles on Iraq will reap only destruction and hatred from the Iraqi people," Khatami said, in a speech in Iran's Gulf island of Kish.

Khatami, who criticized the "massacre of innocents" in Iraq, accused the United States and Britain of seeking to control the region's resources.

"How can those who are arousing the hatred of the region's people, whose resources they seek to control, live in the future in peace next to populations full of hatred and violence against them," he asked, in remarks carried by the official IRNA news agency.

The moderate leader also blasted Washington for "trampling" the authority of the United Nations, and said he United States was being controlled by the "Zionist lobby."

"The interests and future of the American people are today in the hands of the Zionist lobby, which is occupying not only Islamic and Arab regions, but has also taken the great American people hostage," he said, in an allusion to Israel and its occupation of Palestinian territories.

Commenting on the future of Iraq, Khatami stressed it should be based "on the principle of 'one Iraqi, one vote,' and that the unity and territorial integrity of the country be preserved."

On Sunday, Tehran said flatly it would not support a US-installed government in Baghdad.

"We can only respect a government if it is established under the supervision of the United Nations and has been chosen by the vote of the Iraqis themselves," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said.

Though there is no love in Tehran for the regime of Saddam Hussein, against which Iran fought a bloody war from 1980-1988, Tehran has been firmly opposed to the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Iranian officials have accused Washington of having provided Saddam with weapons of mass destruction.

Tehran's opposition to the war is also based on fears of encirclement by US troops that are already present in the Gulf and in Afghanistan to the east.

SPACE.WIRE