TEHRAN, Jan 26: Iran will carry out an "astonishing" retaliation to any attack against the Iran by Israel or the United States, Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned in comments published on Wednesday.

It also responded to Israeli allegations that it was closer to developing a nuclear weapon, saying the latest accusations were designed to shift attention away from Israel's own weapons and its "terror" against Palestinians.

"We will counter any stupid action by Israel and its master with firmness and in an astonishing way," Brig-Gen Mohammad-Ali Jafari was quoted as saying by the Shargh newspaper.

Jafari, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards' ground forces, said Iran now had to capacity to defeat any invader in the space of just weeks. In separate comments carried by the student news agency ISNA, the chief of the Revolutionary Guards said he did not believe Israel or the United States had the courage to attack but asserted that his forces were nonetheless at the ready.

"Even though the US and Israel do not have the courage to invade the Iranian nation, the Revolutionary Guards are in very good state of readiness to response to threats," General Yahya Rahim Safavi said.

And a foreign ministry statement rejected calls from Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres for the world to take action against Iran's nuclear ambitions, seen by the US and Israel as a cover for weapons development.

"The unfounded claims of Israeli officials were made to deviate world attention from Israel's organised terror activities and efforts to further strengthen its nuclear power," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.

He noted that "Israel refuses to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and put its its nuclear activities under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), yet brazenly and maliciously tries to portray Iran's peaceful nuclear activities as a threat to the world".

MALAYSIA's WARNING: Meanwhile, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which chairs the world's biggest grouping of Muslim countries, has warned that the United States will stand alone in the world if it attacks Iran.

The world community, including allies of the United States, is opposed to any such action by the superpower, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said on his return from a trip to Paris late Tuesday.

"Europe does not agree, the United States' close ally Britain does not agree, and I believe no one else will agree," said Mr Abdullah, who chairs the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

"The Islamic world will definitely not agree to an attack on Iran," he told reporters. "Talks should instead be held and made a priority, rather than military action."-AFP