The Iranian president has declared that Israel is a "hotbed for cancerous cells".

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad marked International Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) with a speech at Tehran University, in which he said there would be no room for Israel in the Middle East after a Palestinian state was established

Mr Ahmadinejad, who previously called for Israel to be "wiped off the map", repeated his denial of the Holocaust during the speech and said the goal of all "believers" should be "the disappearance of the Zionist regime".

He said Israel had no place in the region and added: "The Zionist regime is the hotbed for germs and cancerous cells.

"If they persist even in a very small parcel of the Palestinian land, they will move again... and harm everyone in the region."

He was greeted with rapturous applause as those in the audience shouted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."