WASHINGTON, Sept 3: While the US government says it is fighting terrorism, its policies are ‘arrogant’ and ‘war-mongering’, and only create more terrorism and violence, says former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami.

In a rousing speech before a large gathering in Chicago on Saturday night, Mr Khatami urged American Muslims to ‘play a positive role’ in promoting a better understanding between the Islamic and western worlds.

The former Iranian president used his first public appearance during a nearly two-week visit to the US for emphasising the need for such an understanding ‘to make this world a safer place’.

“There’s need and an opportunity to remove this chronic misunderstanding between Islam and the West and we should work together to promote cooperation among peoples of faith and a dialogue between civilisations,” he said.

Mr Khatami also criticised the western media for portraying a negative image of Islam and Muslims.

“Media Islam is the result of a one-sided understanding of Islam that is represented to us in a solitary, clichéd and vicious way,” he said.

“The political version of Islam that is displayed is merely an imaginary version of Islam. What has been stated is a dark and false perception of Islam and the East.”

Mr Khatami, who spoke twice in the Chicago area on Saturday, is the most senior Iranian official to visit the United States since students seized the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held Americans hostage for 444 days.

The perceived behaviour of western power was a key theme of his speech at the Islamic Society of North America’s 43rd annual convention near Chicago.

In a scathing attack on US foreign policy makers, Mr Khatami said: “The grandeur of the nation and country of the United States is for the subjugation and domination of the world.

“Although America claims to be fighting terrorism, it implements policies that cause the intensification of terrorism and institutionalised violence,” he said.