"Any aggression or military action against Iran is an idiocy whose repercussions would hurt all," Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.

"I don't think that such craziness and nonsense will prevail or is doable militarily," he added.

Tensions over the nuclear standoff have surged again in the past days after Iran test-fired a broadside of missiles -- including one it says brings Israel within range -- in war games that provoked international concern.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned that if the United States or its regional ally Israel attacked Iran "then our response to them will be harsh and devastating."

"Of course, the Zionist regime and the United States do not have the capability to involve themselves in another crisis," he said in a speech Friday reported by the official IRNA news agency on Saturday.

Iran rejects Western accusations it is seeking atomic weapons and insists its nuclear programme is aimed solely at generating energy for a growing population whose fossil fuel reserves will eventually run out.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.