The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Manama

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday Iran was ready to respond if attacked, but played down the prospect of war with the United States.

Ahmadinejad was speaking during a visit to Bahrain which came amid mounting concerns in the Gulf that the United States could launch military action against Iran, although Washington says it is committed to a diplomatic solution to a crisis over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

"We never want any war in this region, but from another front, we have made all preparations, and if there is any suspicion on this matter, then we are ready," said Ahmadinejad, speaking through an interpreter.

"I want to confirm again that we don't think there will be a war in the region," he told reporters, without giving reasons.

Ahmadinejad earlier told Al Arabiya television that the United States had no political, economic or military grounds for attack, and dismissed the U.S. military as "shabby."

The West accuses Iran of trying to build a nuclear bomb, but Iran says its nuclear ambitions are to generate electricity.

In a report on Thursday the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Iran had become more open in outlining its nuclear activities, but key questions remained unanswered. Washington says partial disclosure is not enough, and is pushing for sanctions.

Ahmadinejad challenged labeling the standoff a crisis, and said Iran had cooperated fully with the nuclear watchdog.

"We do not feel there is a crisis in this region t or do countries in the region t We think the crisis is in Washington," he said. Ahmadinejad held talks on bilateral, regional and international issues with Bahraini royals and politicians, he said, but no new initiative to dampen tensions was announced. Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa called for more diplomacy.

Saudi Arabia this month proposed to set up a consortium that would provide Iran with enriched uranium for peaceful purposes, but Iran said it would not halt its own enrichment program. Gulf Arab countries are among those with the most to lose in the event of a conflict between Iran and the West, and have consistently warned against any slide into war.

The Gulf is the world's top oil exporting region, and its economies are booming on a near five-fold increase in oil prices since 2002.

Ahmadinejad called for greater cooperation with Gulf states to work together against what he said were U.S. plans to foster tension in the region. He later left Bahrain to attend an OPEC heads of state summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad played down talk of a possible U.S. strike against his country, but nonetheless said Saturday that Iran is prepared "to face any development."

The hardline leader made the comments during a half-day stop to Bahrain on his way to a summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in neighboring Saudi Arabia. He also assured this staunch U.S. ally in the Gulf not to fear a military buildup in the region.

"Iran doesn't expect any military escalation in the region," he said. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are high over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program and its refusal to stop uranium enrichment. The U.S. and its allies fear Iran aims to make nuclear weapons, but Tehran says its program is peaceful.

Ahmadinejad insisted he didn't foresee war "even though the West may expect this to happen."

"Iran won't allow and won't work to accelerate a possible war," he said. "We don't favor war, but at the same time, we have made preparations to face any development, and we are ready."

Bahrain and other small Gulf Arab states worry a faceoff between Iran and the United States would imperil their oil-based economies and destabilize the region. They also fear Iranian retaliation for their alliance with the U.S., whose 5th Fleet is headquartered in Bahrain.

Ahmadinejad said after meeting Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa that his trip aimed at expanding "economic and cultural relations" between the two countries.

He signed a memorandum of understanding to export natural gas to Bahrain.

"Iran will provide one million cubic feet per day of natural gas, and the details are expected to be finalized within a year before signing a deal on this strategic project," said Bahrain's foreign minister, Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa.

AFP, Peshawar

Fighting between rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims in northwestern Pakistan's troubled tribal belt has claimed 90 lives, security officials and state media reported Sunday.

State television said another 150 people were injured as heavily armed tribesmen clashed in the Kurram district bordering Afghanistan.

Security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 61 civilians had died in fighting in the district's main town Parachinar, where sectarian clashes in April left 55 dead.

The military said nine soldiers from the army and paramilitary forces had also died, with 15 wounded, after being caught in the cross-fire.

Witnesses reported continued fighting overnight despite a curfew in place since Friday.

Fighters from the Shiite-dominated Turi tribe and the mainly Sunni Muslim Mengal clan were perched on rooftops and hills overlooking Parachinar, armed with rockets and a mix of heavy and light weapons, witnesses said.

"Both are well entrenched and they are firing on each other," one resident said.

"I can't give you the exact casualty figure as fighting is still going on. Last night we had 45 dead and up to 90 wounded," local administration chief Fakhre Alam told AFP.

"The death toll might have gone up as both sides are using heavy weapons," he added.

Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said the soldiers who died had not been involved part in the fighting.

"They were caught in cross-fire between the rival groups," he told AFP.

"Army and paramilitary troops have been deployed in the area to control the situation and avert sectarian clashes."

He confirmed there were heavy casualties with a death toll of "above 60," adding that the situation in the area remained tense.

Residents, witnesses and state media had put the death toll Saturday at 30 by the time night fell.

Shiites account for 20 percent of Pakistan's 160 million Sunni-dominated population but are in the majority in Parachinar.

AP, Baghdad

Remains of possibly dozens of people believed slain in sectarian violence were unearthed Saturday from a mass grave in a former al-Qaida stronghold in southern Baghdad - the third such find in Iraq this month.

Also Saturday, an Iraqi television station reported one of its reporters had been kidnapped - the latest in a grim series of attacks that has made Iraq among the world's most dangerous countries for journalists.

The badly decomposed remains were found in Baghdad's mostly Sunni Dora neighborhood by Sunnis who have turned against al-Qaida in Iraq, police said. They were discovered in an area overlooking the main highway leading to Shiite shrine cities in the south.

Sunni extremists would often waylay travelers along that road, kidnapping and killing Shiites.

The remains were placed in black plastic bags and transferred to a Shiite mosque in Dora, according to a police officer at the mosque. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information.

An Associated Press photographer at the Kazimain mosque counted 33 plastic bags, and police said each bag held the remains of one victim. But the remains were so badly decomposed that it was impossible to verify the number.

Some of the bags were opened, revealing body parts, bones and scraps of clothing. One of the bags contained a prosthetic leg.

Relatives of people who had been missing in the area crowded into a courtyard outside the mosque, where the remains were laid out. But none of the remains had been identified by late Saturday. A woman in a black abaya wept as the bags were opened.

Earlier this month, American and Iraqi officials said they found 29 bodies near Lake Tharthar north of Baghdad in the former al-Qaida stronghold of Anbar province. The next day, another 17 victims were discovered in a brushy area west of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

AFP, Kabul

Two NATO soldiers and their interpreter were killed when their vehicle was blown up in Afghanistan Saturday while officials reported that 33 Taliban-linked rebels died in new operations.

The two International Security Assistance Force soldiers died with their interpreter when their vehicle struck a bomb in the south, ISAF said.

Another three soldiers were wounded in the blast caused by what the military calls an "improvised explosive device" -- homemade bombs that are among the main threats to security forces here.

The 37-nation ISAF usually does not release the nationalities of its casualties or the provinces where troops are killed. Most of its soldiers in the south are British, Dutch and Canadian.

This year 207 international soldiers have died in Afghanistan, most fighting the resurgent Taliban movement which was in government from 1996 to 2001.

In a separate attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up near an ISAF patrol in the east, killing a civilian and slightly wounding a soldier, the force said. Two other civilians were hurt.

A man claiming to be a Taliban commander said his group was responsible for the bombing in Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan.

Elsewhere, more than 10 Taliban were killed, police said, in an operation launched Saturday in a heartland of the movement -- the Zahri district of Kandahar province where the movement picked up arms in the early 1990s.

The fighting continued into Saturday evening, Kandahar police chief Sayed Agha Saqeb said.

The US-led coalition, which operates alongside ISAF, announced meanwhile that its soldiers killed 23 fighters in Helmand province, also in the south, Thursday in an operation targeting Taliban weapons suppliers.

AP, Riyadh

In his opening address of a rare OPEC summit, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned the United States on Saturday that oil prices would further surge if the U.S. contemplates an attack against his country or Iran. Minutes after Chavez declared that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries should "assert itself as an active political agent," Saudi King Abdullah appeared to rebuke the Venezuelan, insisting that "OPEC has always acted moderately and wisely." "Oil shouldn't be a tool for conflict, it should be a tool for development," said the king, a close U.S. ally whose country is the world's largest oil producer. The OPEC summit opened Saturday in Saudi Arabia, with heads of states and delegates from 12 of the world's biggest oil-producing nations. Chavez warned that the U.S. should not target OPEC members for foreign policy reasons. "If the United States attempts the madness of invading Iran or attacking Venezuela again, the price of oil is probably going to reach $200, not just $100," Chavez said. While Iran has been in a standoff with the U.S. over its nuclear program, left-wing Chavez is a bitter antagonist of President Bush. "We are witnessing constant threats against Iran. I think OPEC should strengthen itself in this capacity and demand respect for the sovereignty of our nations, if the developed world wants a guaranteed supply of oil."

It was the third full OPEC summit since the organization was created in 1960.

The run-up to the meeting was dominated by speculation over whether OPEC would raise production following recent oil price increases that have closed in on $100.

U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman called on OPEC to increase production earlier this week, but cartel officials have said they will hold off any decision until the group meets next month in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Reuters, London

President Pervez Musharraf, defending his decision to declare emergency rule, has said Pakistan's nuclear weapons will not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands while the military is in control of them. The comments, in a BBC interview broadcast on Saturday, come as U.S. envoy John Negroponte visited Pakistan to put pressure on Musharraf to revoke the two-week-old emergency, make peace with opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and hold fair elections. Musharraf said that if elections were held in a "disturbed environment", it could bring in dangerous elements who might endanger Pakistan's "strategic assets". "They cannot fall into the wrong hands, if we manage ourselves politically. The military is there -- as long as the military is there, nothing happens to the strategic assets, we are in charge and nobody does anything with them," he said. Pakistan's foreign ministry said later that Musharraf had not meant there was any danger that the weapons could fall into the wrong hands. "He had argued that because the military organization is responsible for their safety and security, our strategic assets are totally secure and in no danger of falling in wrong hands," a statement from the foreign ministry said.

Musharraf, who took power in a coup eight years ago, cited rising Islamist militancy and a hostile judiciary as reasons for declaring emergency rule. He has said a general election will be held before Jan. 9 and he expects to step down as army chief and be sworn in as a civilian president beforehand.

In the interview conducted on Friday, Musharraf dismissed opposition leader Bhutto's chances of winning elections.

He blamed Bhutto, who has called for him to relinquish power, for ruining chances of a deal which would see her serving as prime minister under his presidency.