Iranian President Mohammad Khatami Friday said the United States was using double standards in its war in Iraq and accused it of sparking interethnic conflict.
Addressing the Azeri parliament on the second day of his visit to the former Soviet republic, Khatami defended both Iraq and Palestinian territories against the West.
"Unilateral international policies followed by double standards create difficulties among people, and this can be seen in Iraq and Palestine," Khatami said.
"The Islamic religion allows for peace and security in the region and a true dialogue for between the world's civilisations," he said.
Khatami was paying the first visit by an Iranian leader to the former Soviet republic since 1993, trying to build ties between two countries embroiled in a dispute over oil access in the Caspian Sea and Azerbaijan's closer recent relations with the United States.
Khatami is due to leave Azerbaijan on Saturday.
In recent months, the Pentagon has been ramping up its military assistance to Azerbaijan, which, like Iran, has a Caspian shoreline.
The US military has run joint exercises with the Azeri navy in the Caspian.
The US is backing a major project to export Azeri oil from the Caspian Sea - home to some of the world's biggest untapped oil and gas reserves - to international markets.
But Iran is suspicious of US motives, particularly after President George W. Bush described the country as part of an "axis of evil" following the September 11 attacks.
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