Iran’s firebrand president has been barred from New York’s “Ground Zero” after seeking what one US official described as a “photo op” at the scene of the worst terror attack on America.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked permission to lay a wreath at the World Trade Centre site during a trip to New York next week for the annual UN General Assembly session - at which world leaders will be wrestling to find a way to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons amid growing fears of war.

The leading US presidential candidates showed rare unanimity in denouncing the proposed visit to Ground Zero by the president of a country listed by the United States as a state sponsor of terrorism, joining a chorus of criticism from victims’ families, Jewish groups and local politicians. “Go To Hell,” the tabloid New York Daily News proclaimed on its front page.

Democrat Hillary Clinton called Mr Ahmadinejad’s request “unacceptable” while Barack Obama said Ground Zero “must not be a backdrop for President Ahmadinejad to posture”.

Republican contender Rudolph Giuliani called the plan “outrageous” and Mitt Romney described it as “shockingly audacious”. “If he has any extra time, why doesn’t he go visit the Holocaust museum instead?” Mr Romney told a cheering crowd in Florida.

Mr Ahmadinejad’s request was made by Iranian diplomats on September 6 but the news only slipped out after General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, told Congress that Teheran was training and arming Iraqi militias who were killing Americans.

The US military said today that it had seized an Iranian suspected of smuggling bombs in northern Iraq in a raid on a hotel in the predominantly Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah. The detained Iranian was described as an officer in the Quds Force, the covert arm of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.

New York police said diplomatically that Mr Ahmadinejad would be barred from the “Pit” at Ground Zero because rebuilding work is underway. The police department also said it would oppose any visit to the surrounding area on security grounds.

The Iranian president, making his third trip to New York since taking office, is scheduled to address the opening day of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday just hours after US President George Bush.

He has repeated his call for Mr Bush to debate with him face-to-face, but the offer has again been spurned by the White House. The two leaders are both invited to attend the traditional first-day luncheon thrown by the UN secretary-general. But Mr Ahmadinejad declined to attend last year because alcohol is served.

Asked today about the Iranian leader’s request to visit Ground Zero, Mr Bush said: “The local police will make the proper decision and that if they decide for him not to go, like it looks like they have, I can understand why they would not want somebody that’s running a country who’s a state sponsor of terror down there at the site.”

The international response to Iran’s suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons is one of the major challenges facing world leaders at the UN session. The Islamic government ignored UN demands to halt uranium enrichment, despite two rounds of UN sanctions.

Political directors from the foreign ministries of Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the United States are due to meet in Washington tomorrow to discuss a possible third round of UN sanctions against Teheran. Diplomats say that foreign ministers from the six nations may follow-up with a meeting in New York next week.

Zalmay Khalilzad, Washington’s UN ambassador, said Mr Ahmadinejad should not use Ground Zero for a “photo op.” He suggested that Iran demonstrate its concern about terrorism by taking “concrete actions” instead, such as suspending its uranium enrichment programme and dropping support for Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The United States has also barred Ali Reza Moaiyeri, Iran’s ambassador to the UN office in Geneva from attending the UN session in New York because of his suspected involvement in the 1979 US hostage crisis in Teheran - a charge that Tehran denies.

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