Ahmadinejad Invites Bush To Speak At Any University In Iran

NEW YORK, USA - After being welcomed in New York by the president of Columbia University, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad extended an invitation to US President George W. Bush.

Ahmadinejad told Iranian state television if US president George Bush plans to travel to Islamic republic, he is welcome to make speech at any Iranian university.

"If their president plans to travel to Iran, we will allow him to make a speech" at a university, Ahmadinejad told state TV earlier this week before leaving New York to travel to South America.

The harshness of Monday's introduction at Columbia prompted complaints in Iran and elsewhere that Ahmadinejad had been blind-sided by his host. Ahmadinejad complained that Columbia University President Lee Bollinger's speech had contained "many insults" and amounted to "unfriendly treatment."

Back home, Iranians also were dismayed by Bollinger's introduction and said his words only added to their image of the United States as a bully.

Iran and the U.S cut off diplomatic relations in 1979 after Iranian militant students seized the U.S. Embassy and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Ahmadinejad left New York on Wednesday and traveled to friendlier ground in South America, first stopping in Bolivia, where he pledged $1 billion in investment and then visiting Venezuela to meet the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21033495/