Mr Ahmadinejad's comments, delivered on Thursday, 'are unacceptable, damaging and uncivilised,' the European Union's Slovenian presidency said in a statement.

The EU presidency 'condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent statements made by the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran... Such statements are improper for representatives of the Iranian authorities,' the statement said.

The EU's rotating presidency, held by Slovenia for the first half of this year, called on the Iranian leader 'to stop the hostile rhetoric and refrain from all threats towards other states and nations, members of the international community'.

Mr Ahmadinejad was quoted by the official IRNA news agency on Thursday, the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel, as calling it a 'stinking corpse' which is doomed to disappear.

'Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken,' he said.

Iran does not recognise the Jewish state, and since becoming president in 2005 Ahmadinejad has repeatedly provoked international outrage by predicting that Israel is doomed to disappear.

He has also caused controversy by playing down the scale of the Holocaust.

Israel's President Shimon Peres on Friday claimed the current violence in Lebanon was fomented by Iran to further what he said was Teheran's goal to control the Middle East. -- AFP