Ahmadinejad also raised new questions about the Holocaust as he raised more controversy on his visit to New York for the annual UN General Assembly meetings.

"The United States has never entered a real war, not in Vietnam, nor in Afghanistan, nor even World War II," the Iranian leader told American editors and reporters when asked about how Iran would react to any US supported strike by Israel on Iran's nuclear facilities.

"War is just not bombing someplace. When it starts it has no limits," the New York Times reported.

"Do you think anyone will attack Iran to begin with?" he said, according to Atlantic magazine's website. "I really don't think so. The Zionist regime is a very small entity on the map, even to the point that it doesn't really factor into our equation."

The UN Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. The United States and its allies have called for stringent application of the measures and Washington-Tehran relations have become increasingly fraught.

AFP