Two days ahead of a crucial UN deadline for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad on Tuesday gave a press conference mixing camaraderie, defiance and homespun philosophy.

After challenging George W Bush, the US president, to a live TV debate – swiftly dismissed as a distraction by the White House – Mr Ahmadi-Nejad suggested the UN security council, which set the deadline for Iran to suspend its most sensitive nuclear activity, was allowing the US and Britain to use the body for their own interests.