Iranian president says celestial light protected him at UN

IRAN'S hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, claims a celestial green "light" descended on him when he addressed world leaders at the United Nations.

The aura also transfixed his audience, who sat unblinking for nearly half an hour as he spoke, he claimed. In a video published on an Iranian website, Mr Ahmadinejad says that someone present at the UN when he addressed the General Assembly in September told him: "When you began with the words 'In the name of God ...' I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you."

The president added: "I felt it myself, too, that suddenly the atmosphere changed and ... the leaders could not blink. I had opened their eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic."

That message went down badly with many countries, however, as the president insisted on Iran's right to control its nuclear fuel cycle for energy purposes.