Washington: In his strongest endorsement yet of anti-government protests in Iran, US President George W Bush has said his country stood "squarely" with the demonstrators, even as he urged the international community to warn Tehran that it would not tolerate its acquiring nuclear weapons.

"The international community must come together to make it very clear to Iran that we will not tolerate the construction of a nuclear weapon. Iran would be dangerous if they have a nuclear weapon," Bush told reporters on June 18.

He said he had brought up the subject up with leaders of G-8 countries and Russia at the recent G-8 summit in France.

"We had a good discussion on the subject, with near universal agreement that we all must work together to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon," Bush said.

Referring to anti-government protests in Iran, he said, "I appreciate those courageous souls who speak out for freedom in Iran. They need to know America stands squarely by their side. And I would urge the Iranian administration to treat them with the utmost respect."

Asked about accusations that British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his staunchest ally in the war on Iraq, had exaggerated information about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, Bush said, "I will say something right now. He operated on very sound intelligence. And those accusations are simply not true."

PTI