Iran's President blames U.S., Israel for mosque blast

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United States, Israel and Britain on Tuesday of being responsible for a blast that killed 14 Iranians.

Iran's intelligence ministry said last week it had arrested five or six members of a terrorist group with links to Britain and the United States, who were involved in the explosion last month in the southern city of Shiraz that also wounded 200.

"The blast took place shortly after the Zionist regime (Israel), America and some British agents said they planned to assassinate Iranian officials," Ahmadinejad told a news conference.

"Those behind the bombing were soon arrested and they confessed to their relations with those countries and now the Iranian nation has the evidence of their involvement and support," he said.

Iran has in the past accused Washington and London of trying to destabilize the Islamic Republic by supporting rebels, mainly those in sensitive border areas.

Iran and the United States are at loggerheads over Tehran's nuclear program, which Washington suspects is aimed at making bombs but which Iranian officials say is for producing electricity.

Tehran's accusations over the mosque blast were similar to allegations U.S. officials have made about Iranian support for militias in Iraq that have fought U.S. and U.S.-backed government forces there, accusations Tehran denies.

Ahmadinejad said Iran would follow the case "through legal channels". He did not elaborate.

Iran's judiciary said on Monday it would file international lawsuits against the United States and Britain for providing financial support to those behind the April 12 explosion.

Iranian officials had previously said the April 12 blast during an evening prayer sermon by a prominent local cleric, was caused by explosives left over from an exhibition commemorating the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Security is normally tight in Shi'ite Muslim Iran and bomb attacks have been rare in recent years. Several people were killed in 2005 and 2006 in blasts in a southwestern province with a large Sunni Arab population.

Shiraz is a historical city with more than one million inhabitants and is a popular tourist destination.

(Writing by Zahra Hosseinian; Editing by Ralph Boulton)