Iranian president blasts Bush

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's pro-reform president, responding to President Bush's comments in support of the reform movement here, denounced the American leader on Sunday as a "warmonger" with a false view of events in this country.\nThe sharp comments by President Mohammad Khatami came as another top reformist told Bush to stay out of the movement's struggle with hard-liner clerics, who have tried to prevent change in Iran's Islamic government.\nMany reformers fear that statements of support from the United States -- seen as Iran's most bitter enemy -- could hurt their cause. Iranians have also resented Bush's past comments branding their country part of an "axis of evil."\nBush on Friday denounced Iran's "uncompromising, destructive policies" and expressed support for Iranians rallying behind a popular Islamic cleric who resigned last week to protest hard-liners' control over the country.\nAsked about Bush's remarks during a Cabinet meeting Sunday, Khatami urged "those (within the Bush administration) pursuing a warmongering policy ... to get rid of the false interpretation of the situation in Iran."\n"Extremist policies dominating part of the American government are threatening the world with war," Khatami said in comments carried by the Islamic Republic News Agency.\nAmerica cut diplomatic relations with Iran after militant students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979. There have been no public contacts between the governments since, but relations showed signs of improvement following Khatami's reformist-led presidential election.\nEarlier Sunday, prominent reformist lawmaker Mohsen Mirdamadi said Bush should stop insulting Iran and keep out of the nation's reform process.\nMirdamadi, who heads the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, was quoted as saying reformists did not need "any assistance from" Bush.\nIran's Foreign Ministry also attacked Bush, accusing him of using "old and decayed tactics" to create discord within Iran.\nAyatollah Jalaleddin Taheri quit as a mosque preacher in the central city of Isfahan on Tuesday, saying hard-line clerics were paralyzing civil and elected institutions to preserve their power in the name of religion.\nTwo days later, 125 reformist lawmakers and the Islamic Iran Participation Front -- Iran's largest reform party -- expressed support for Taheri, saying his views reflected the beliefs of millions of Iranians.\nWashington has expressed concern over several Iranian weapons programs and what it says is an expanded Iranian role in supporting regional terrorist groups. In his State of the Union speech in January, Bush said Iran, Iraq and North Korea formed an "axis of evil."\nHard-liners in the Iranian judiciary have effectively thwarted Khatami's reform program by closing more than 50 liberal newspapers and detaining or jailing dozens of pro-reform journalists and political activists.