President
Barack Obama has condemned as "offensive" and "hateful" the suggestion
of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the September 11 attacks
might have been orchestrated by the US government.

The US
president’s remarks in an interview with BBC Persian Television came a
day after the Iranian leader included the incendiary comment in his
speech to the UN General Assembly. It prompted a walkout by the US
delegation and others.

"For him to make a statement like that was
inexcusable," Mr Obama said in an interview at his New York hotel. "It
was offensive. It was hateful. And particularly for him to make the
statement here in Manhattan, just a little north of Ground Zero, where
families lost their loved ones, people of all faiths, all ethnicities
who see this as the seminal tragedy of this generation."