Tehran  - In his first official campaign speech, incumbent Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday accused his challengers in next month's presidential election of wanting a policy of détente with the West.

"The previous government (of Mohammad Khatami) which followed a detente policy de facto eradicated the goals of the nation and intended to accept a status which others (West) had planned to impose on us," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in a sports hall in downtown Tehran.

The two moderate challengers of the president in the June 12 election, Mir-Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, have several times called in their campaign speeches for a less confrontational approach towards the West.

"Just at the time when the government was following these detente policies, we were charged with terrorism, human rights violations and the country was even called as
(part of the) axis of evil," Ahmadinejad said.

The sports hall was packed with thousands of the president's supporters who shouted "death to compromisers."

Former president Khatami has voiced his support for Moussavi and asked all his supporters to vote for the former prime minister.

Both Moussavi and Karroubi have criticized the president's foreign policies and blamed him to have pushed the country towards renewed international isolation.

"Fortunately the people returned to their revolutionary goals and chose the slogan of 'We Can' which eventually led to a change in the country's politics," said Ahmadinejad, referring to 2005 when he became president.

He also blamed the moderates and reformists as being responsible for a brain drain of 125,000 experts from the country.

Referring to Iran's controversial nuclear programme, Ahmadinejad blamed his predecessor of having signed what he called the "disgraceful accord" in 2003 in Tehran with foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, which saw Iran agreed to suspend its nuclear work.

"The nuclear accord at that time was a symbol of helplessness and compromise - the government at that time used detente as pretext for suspending all nuclear works for making our enemies more demanding," Ahmadinejad said.

The president once again stressed that he would not make any compromise on Iran's internationally-acknowledged rights to pursue civil nuclear technology.

Iran insists that its nuclear projects is for peaceful purposes only but the West fears that Iran might use the same technology for pursuing a secret military programme.

Despite the rhetoric battle with his challengers - Moussavi, Karroubi and conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaei - the economy and not Iran's nuclear or foreign policies are actually the main concern of most voters.

Ahmadinejad is blamed for not having fulfilled his promises of economic reform and improving the life standards for the middle class and poor social strata.

His critics say that his mismanagement have the current economic crisis and high inflation.

Moussavi has focused his campaign strategy on the economy and hopes to challenge the president with thse same issues which led to Ahmadinejad's landslide victory in June 2005. (dpa)