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TEHRAN, Iran - The United States is incapable of inflicting "serious damage" on Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday, as a second U.S. aircraft carrier group steamed toward the Gulf as a warning from Washington for Iran to back down in its attempts to dominate the region.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, shakes hands with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem at the start of their meeing in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2007. [AP]

In an interview with Iranian state television, Ahmadinejad said Washington had not stepped up its campaign against Tehran, despite the standoff with the West over Iran's defiance of U.N. demands to halt uranium enrichment. The U.N. Security Council imposed limited sanctions on Iran last month.

"U.S. rhetoric against Iran has not increased," Ahmadinejad said. "In 2003, they openly threatened to attack Iran. Now they have indirectly made such threats."

He spoke with confidence over Iran's ability to withstand a strike. "The United States is unable to inflict serious damage on Iran," the president said. He also noted, "They (U.S.) are not really in a position to carry out this action (of attacking Iran). I believe there are many wise people in the United States who would not let it happen."

Iran says its atomic program is aimed solely at generating energy, but the United States and some of its allies suspect it is geared toward making nuclear weapons.

Ahmadinejad, during a meeting Tuesday with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, accused the U.S. of stirring up conflict between rival Muslim sects to maintain influence in the Middle East.

"The U.S. intends to cause insecurity and dispute and weaken independent governments in the region to continue with its dominance over the Middle East and achieve its arrogant goals," Ahmadinejad said, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA.

Opinion-makers from both ends of Iran's political spectrum have recently criticized Ahmadinejad, accusing him of stirring opposition to Iran by taking a hard line on the nuclear dispute and employing fiery anti-Western rhetoric.

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