In a military parade kicking off "Sacred Defence Week", seven of the Islamic republic's new Shahab-3 missiles were rolled out on mobile launchers daubed with the slogans "We will crush America under our feet" and "Israel must be wiped off the map".

According to a commentary given over loud-speakers lining the parade route, the missiles have "a range of 1,700 kilometers" (1,060 miles) and "are capable of hitting the heart of the enemy", an AFP journalist at the scene said.

Addressing the crowd gathered at the parade area -- just south of the capital near the mausoleum of Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini -- reformist President Mohammad Khatami asserted the need to boost the country's defences.

"Even if we don't give a pretext to the enemy, they will find one," warned Khatami. "Despite all the pressure from our enemies, we will pursue our policy of detente, but we also insist on becoming stronger -- militarily, politically and economically."

"We are ready to defend our country," he said. "Whether in organisation, strategy or material, the armed force have reached self-sufficiancy and will not allow anyone to threaten our land, our nation, our people, our revolution or our values."

But the mild-mannered president also reiterated denials that the country is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, amid United States-led charges that the country is using an atomic power project as a cover for developping the bomb.

"We are opposed to the spread of weapons of mass destruction and the very existence of atomic weapons," said Khatami, whose country has been slapped with a deadline from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to account for its suspect civil nuclear programme.

Khatami echoed widespread anger here over the IAEA's October 31 deadline, contained in a resolution passed on September 12 that calls on Iran to answer all the agency's questions regarding its enrichment activities, provide unrestricted access to UN inspectors and a detailed list of its nuclear-related imports.

Many officials here have presented the resolution as an effort to scupper the development of civil nuclear technology, with some hardliners going as far as to advocate pulling out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"We will not renounce our right to become stronger in the domains of science and technology," Khatami said to the gathering, which featured thousands of troops, tanks, missiles, helicopters and jets.

"The Iranian people, who are pacifists and have a love of justice, have always said their military strategy was defensive and that they do not want weapons of mass destruction. Yet it is they who are subject to international pressure by those who support Israel -- the centre of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction," the president said.

"It is the Zionist regime which possesses a considerable atomic arsenal and uses the worst forms of terrorism in Palestine while we are partisans of peace, stability and a region free of atomic weapons," he added.

The development of the Shahab-3 missile has sparked alarm in Israel, which shares US suspicions over Iran's atomic activities.

A final test of the Shahab-3 -- which brings arch-enemy Israel well within range of the country's armed forces -- was conducted earlier this year.

On July 20, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei presided over a ceremony that saw the missiles handed over for operation by the elite Revolutionary Guards, the hardline ideological spearhead of the nearly 25-year-old Islamic regime

Officials here have previously said the missile -- based on North Korea's No-Dong and Pakistan's Ghauri-II -- has a range of 1,300 kilometersmiles). It can reportedly carry a warhead weighing up to 1,000 kilogrammes (2,200 pounds).

In Farsi, Shahab means "meteor" or "shooting star".

"Sacred Defence Week" is dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of Iranians killed after the forces of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein invaded in 1980. Events include photo exhibitions, film screenings and recitations of poetry, with state television drumming up memories of the bloody conflict by carrying historical footage from the trenches.

WAR.WIRE