Tehran, Feb 10, IRNA -- President Mohammad Khatami on Thursday warned that Iran would unleash hell if it were attacked as international concerns about another probable US adventurism are rising.

"If, God forbid, any aggressor puts its foot on this land, Iran will turn into a burning hell for them," he told thousands of demonstrators who had gathered at a famous square in Tehran to mark the 26th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

photo: ISNA

"The Iranian nation is not after a war, violence or clashes, but the world must know that the Iranians will not tolerate any invasion," Khatami said to the chants of 'Death to America' and Death to 'Israel'.

photo: ISNA

Khatami branded US threats as part of a 'psychological warfare', being waged in accordance with the 'expansionist policies of the American conservatives'.

The president also denounced 'the slanders of the American rulers against the Iranian nation and the establishment', saying they were aimed at 'putting a cover on the failures of an extremist US policy'.

"This ballyhoo is aimed at concealing their failures and whenever their failures add up, they become further foul-mouthed," he said.

photo: ISNA

"They have no answer to the world public opinion for initiating the (Iraq) war; hence, the Americans are becoming further enlightened to the war-mongering policies of their rulers," Khatami added.

Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani brushed aside a possible US assault on Iran, saying 'the Americans will never be able to unleash a military attack on the Islamic Iran'.

"When they take everything into account, they will conclude that there exists nowhere in the region, having the conditions for a possible attack on Iran," he told demonstrators in the central desert city of Yazd.

photo: ISNA

"Iran is not a small country like Iraq; wherever they attack us, they will be attacked," Shamkhani added.

George W. Bush was quoted last month saying that he 'will never take any option off the table' when asked whether his regime was willing to consider a military action against Tehran's peaceful nuclear program.

photo: ISNA

In his State of the Union address, Bush charged that Iran 'remains the world's primary state sponsor of terror -- pursuing nuclear weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve'.

Bush's bellicose remarks were echoed by his hawkish Vice President Dick Cheney who has said Israel might strike Iran's nuclear facilities 'without being asked'.

The statements come on the backdrop of a report written by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker magazine, saying US operatives were scouting inside Iran to identify targets for possible air strikes.

Iranian officials have brushed off the report, stressing that it is part of a 'psychological warfare' being waged by US officials to make the Europeans abandon their diplomatic negotiations with Iran.

US Pentagon officials have said the New Yorker report was 'riddled with errors'.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that a military attack is simply not on the agenda 'at this point of the time'.