Iran’s hardline leaders fired off a barrage of vitriolic attacks against the United States and Israel on Friday, voicing "serious doubts" over the Holocaust and predicting the "elimination" of the Jewish state.

The Islamic republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also used a pro-Palestinian conference in Tehran to rally support from Islamic nations for the cash-strapped, Hamas-led Palestinian government.

"The Zionist regime is an injustice and by its very nature a permanent
threat," firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the gathering of regime officials, visiting Palestinian militant leaders and foreign sympathisers.

"Whether you like it or not, the Zionist regime is on the road to being
eliminated," said Ahmadinejad, whose regime does not recognize Israel and who drew international condemnation last year when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map".

Repeated doubts on the Holocaust

But unfazed by his critics in Europe and Washington -- who are also piling the pressure on Iran over its disputed nuclear drive -- the hardliner went on to repeat his controversial stance on the Holocaust.

"If there is serious doubt over the Holocaust, there is no doubt over the catastrophe and Holocaust being faced by the Palestinians," said the president, who had previously dismissed as a "myth" the killing of an estimated six million Jews by the Nazis and their allies during WWII.

"I tell the governments who support Zionism to ... let the migrants (Jews) return to their countries of origin. If you think you owe them something, give them some of your land," he said.

In his speech, Ayatollah Khamenei accused the United States of conspiring against his country, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon in order to place the entire region under Israeli control.

"The plots by the American government against Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon aimed at governing the Middle East with the control of the Zionist regime will not succeed," Iran’s all-powerful leader said.

"If, by accident, the American government saw reason, it would respect the wish of the Iraqi people to form its government, respect the Palestinian government, free the prisoners of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, cease the conspiracy (and) not create tension in the Persian Gulf region," he said.

Support for Hamas-led government

Khamenei also issued a thinly veiled appeal for Muslim countries
to help the Hamas-led Palestinian government following a decision by the United States and European Union to suspend aid.

"The Islamic world cannot remain indifferent and silent to tyranny," he
asserted.

"Your martyrs are our martyrs. Your pain is our pain," he said of the
Palestinians. "Islamic nations have the duty to help you in every possible way, and help you along this blessed path."

EU foreign ministers last Monday formally backed plans for a temporary aid suspension to the Palestinian government, having called on Hamas to renounce violence, recognize Israel and abide by previous Palestinian commitments.

The EU gives about 500 million euros a year to the Palestinian Authority, about half of it collectively through the European Commission and the rest from individual EU governments.

The United States announced last week that it would suspend all direct aid to the Palestinian government but said it would boost humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people through the United Nations.

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Speaking to reporters in Tehran, the Syria-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal described the freeze in aid as "immoral and inhumane".

"It is immoral and inhumane to collectively punish a nation which practises democracy. But the Palestinian nation will not give in," he said, adding that he was talking with Iran as well as Arab countries in a bid to fill Palestinian Authority coffers.

"We haven’t talked with our Iranian brothers about any figures. In my past visit, I talked to the Iranian leadership and they said they would stand with the Palestinian people. We are following these promises, not only with the Iranians but also with the Arab world," he said.

"One hundred and seventy million dollars a month is needed to run the
administration, out of which 115 million dollars goes to paying salaries," he explained.

"We are waiting for the Iranian government’s support and answer to our request, but we haven’t received anything yet."