Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said a document apparently¹ showing that Tehran plans to test a trigger for a nuclear bomb is a US forgery².

伊朗总统马哈茂德·艾哈迈迪称，一份显示德黑兰计划测试核弹触发器的文档是美国伪造的。

Mr Ahmadinejad said criticism of Iran was becoming "a tasteless joke"

In an interview filmed on Friday with ABC News, Mr Ahmadinejad said the report in the Times newspaper was "fundamentally not true".

Mr Ahmadinejad said criticism of Iran's nuclear programme had become "a repetitive重复的 and tasteless joke".

Iran says its nuclear enrichment programme is for peaceful purposes.

The BBC's Jane O'Brien in Washington says the interview offered a rare opportunity to see Iranian leader being questioned by the US media.

But Mr Ahmadinejad's answers gave little indication that his administration is moving towards more conciliatory安抚的，调停的 position, says our correspondent.

'Fabricated papers'

The Times reported last week that it had obtained a document, dating from 2007, describing a four-year plan by Iran to test a nuclear trigger using uranium deuteride氘化物，重氢化物.

The product can be used as a neutron中子 initiator: the component⁴ of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion.

In his first public response to the report, Mr Ahmadinejad said the accusations⁵ were "fundamentally not true".

He dismissed the documents, saying: "They are all a fabricated焊接的，组合的 bunch of papers continuously being forged锻造，伪造 and disseminated散播，散布 by the American government."

When asked if there would "be no nuclear weapon in Iran, ever", Mr Ahmadinejad said his view was already known.

"You should say something only once. We have said once that we don't want a nuclear bomb. We don't accept it."

'Bullying⁷'

Iran is already subject to three sets of UN sanctions for its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.

It is at risk of further sanctions after it rejected a deal to send low-enriched uranium abroad to be refined into fuel for a research reactor⁸.

Mr Ahmadinejad said Iran would welcome talks "under fair conditions".

"We don't welcome confrontation⁹, but we don't surrender to bullying either," he said.

"If you are saying you are going to impose sanctions, then go and do it."

Mr Ahmadinejad also rejected criticism of Iran's human rights situation and allegations of mass arrests following the elections which returned him to office in June.

"These things have to do with the judiciary. We have good laws. There is the judge. These people have got lawyers. These are not political questions."

He said people in Iran had more freedom than in the US.

The ABC interview took place before the latest protests held at the funeral of the influential¹⁰ dissident持不同政见的 cleric, Grand Ayatollah Montazeri.

Iran says its uranium enrichment programme is for purely¹¹ peaceful purposes, aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more gas and oil.

But the US and its allies say it could be used to develop weapons.