Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected United States charge that his country is supplying weapons to Shiite Iraqis and warned that any attack on his country will be 'severely punished.'

"I think Americans have made a mistake in Iraq and unfortunately are losing, and this is a shame for Americans of course, and that is why they are trying to point their fingers on other people, and pointing fingers on others will not solve the problem," he told ABC network.

"We would like to have the strengthening of Iraq and the stability of the Iraq government. But we think that the US is following another policy trying to hide its defeats and failures and that is why it is pointing its fingers to others. This is not a solution to the problem," he said.

Replying to questions, he said Iran is opposed to any conflict and also presence of foreign forces in Iraq.

"We are asking for peace, we are asking for security and we will be sad to see people killed," he asserted.

The Iranian president refused to address directly the United States accusation that the weapon made by Iran have killed Americans but said the Americans were trying to find a scapegoat.

Told about Americans assertion that serial numbers linked weapons to Iran, Ahmadinejad said: "I can give you figures and numbers, which are known: more than 160,000 American troops are in Iraq. What are they doing in Iraq?"

In an apparent reference to Iranians arrested by Americans in Iraq who Washington alleges were inciting insurgency, the Iranian President said it was 'childish' for the United States to arrest defenseless people.

"I think it was childish for the US government to do something like that to arrest defenseless people, not allowing them to talk to anyone and to publish information in a biased way. I think that this is not a solution to the problem in Iraq; the solution is somewhere else," the Iranian President said.

Iran, he said, was willing to provide 'intellectual support' to the Iraqi government and to the Americans to help end the conflict in Iraq.

To a question about the possibility of a military strike by the United States, he said, "Anyone attacking Iran would be severely punished. But there are wise people in US who will stop such an illegal action."