WASHINGTON, Aug 31: US President George Bush said on Thursday that Iran must face the consequences for responding with defiance and delay to demands for abandoning its uranium enrichment programme.

A UN deadline for Iran to heed the Security Council call to stop enrichment expired on Thursday.

“There must be consequences for Iran’s defiance and we must not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons,” said Mr Bush, speaking hours before the deadline expired. Mr Bush was speaking to veterans at the American Legion convention.

He said that Iran’s support to the Hezbollah militia reveals Tehran’s designs to dominate the Middle East. He also accused Iran of trying to destabilise the US-backed government in Iraq.

Iran, he added, was sponsoring Iraqi guerillas and was supplying components for improvised explosive devices to them.

“The world now faces a grave threat from the radical regime in Iran,” Mr Bush said.

“The war we fight today is more than a military conflict,” Mr Bush said. “It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century.”