Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called an impromptu news conference on Friday to denounce Western reaction to news that Tehran was building a second, previously unknown uranium enrichment plant.

Ahmadinejad told reporters in New York that he was surprised by the reaction because Iran's nuclear site was "perfectly legal".

"We are completely within IAEA rules and its supervision," he said.

Ahmadinejad went on to say that Israel would not dare to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has urged the international community to exert more pressure on Israel. In a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York, Abbas said on Friday that the Jewish state had to change its settlement policy and finally honor its commitments in peace negotiations. Abbas welcomed US President Barack Obama's Middle East peace initiative.

"President Obama's vision based on two-state solution and a freeze on settlement construction has created a lot of hope", said Abbas.

"I warn that the policy of illegal colonization and the construction of the annexation and separation wall pursued by Israel, the occupation force, destroys all chance of restarting the peace process," Abbas told the United Nations General Assembly.

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday held his first trilateral meeting with both Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an attempt to restart deadlocked talks, but failed to achieve a breakthrough.

Earlier the Secretary-General of the Arab League told journalists at a news conference that "freezing of settlement activity was a must".

On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the Middle East peace quartet appealed to the conflict parties to create the conditions for a quick resumption of peace talks. The Israelis have to halt their settlement activity and stop provocative action in East Jerusalem, said the group in a statement.

At the same time, the Quartet called on the Palestinians to immediately halt all violence and to improve the security situation. Members of the Quartet are: the United Nations, US, the European Union and Russia.

Egypt's foreign minister warned that a nuclear-capable Israel and an Iranian government actively pursuing nuclear weapons could trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

In an interview with Associated Press, Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that Iran has a right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy but it must be verified by the UN nuclear watschdog agency, IAEA.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe used his speech at the United Nations General Assembly to slam the United States and Europe for keeping economic sanctions in place despite the power-sharing government in Harare.

In his speech to the UN General Assembly, Mugabe said Western countries have refused to remove what he termed illegal sanctions they imposed against his government.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the former Zimbabwean opposition leader who joined a power-sharing government recently traveled to Europe and America to lobby for lifting of the sanctions and a restoration of foreign aid and investment.

But the European Union and other Western nations say the coalition government, formed in February, has not done enough to restore the rule of law.

Author: Nigel Tandy

Editor: Rick Demarest