Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that the "American empire" is reaching "end of the road" and charged the Bush administration with starting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to win votes.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday hours after President George Bush [Images] spoke at the same forum, he predicted the defeat of American and NATO alliance in Afghanistan and advised the next rulers of the United States to keep "their interference" in their own borders.

The people of Afghanistan, he said, are victims of efforts by NATO member states to "dominate the regions surrounding India, China and South Asia."

"The Security Council cannot do anything about it because of some of these NATO members also happen to be the major decision makers in the Security Council," he added.

During Bush's speech, Ahmadinejad gave thumbs down sign as the American President was denouncing Tehran as sponsor of global terrorism. In a speech on expected lines, the Iranian President reiterated that his country's nuclear programme was for peaceful purposes and blamed a "few bullying powers" of trying to get it scuttled. The time has come, he told the 192-member Assembly, for establishing an independent committee to monitor disarmament of nuclear weapons states.

Ahmadinejad's address came on the day diplomats said Russia [Images] and China are trying to block efforts of the United States and its allies to strengthen sanctions against Iran to force it to abandon its uranium enrichment programme.

The Iranian President said the United States and its allies oppose other nations' progress and monopolise technologies to use them to impose their will on other nations. Iran, he stressed, is for dialogue but would not accept "illegal demands" and would resist bullying. The situation in the world has become unstable, he stated, because of "never ending" arms race, the proliferation and stocking piling of nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction and establishment of missile defence system.

For troubles in Georgia, he blamed "provocations" of NATO and "certain" western powers, military agreements and "the underhanded actions of Zionists."

He also blamed the western nations of trying to re-establish colonial era relationship in Africa by "starting" civil wars. Ahmadinejad, who has often called for wiping Israel off the map of the world, said that the Zionist regime there is on a "definite slope to collapse" and "there is no way for it to get out of cesspool created by itself and its supporters."