TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's president Tuesday blamed the United States and other "big powers" for nuclear proliferation, AIDS and other global ills, and accused them of exploiting the United Nations and other organizations for their own gain and the developing world's loss.
But, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, time was on the poor countries' side.
"The big powers are going down," Ahmadinejad told foreign ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Tehran. "They have come to the end of their power, and the world is on the verge of entering a new, promising era."
The more than 100-member NAM is made up of such diverse members as communist Cuba, Jamaica and India and depicts itself as bloc-free. But most members share a critical view of the U.S.
And with Iran assuming the chairmanship of the conference Tuesday, Ahmadinejad's keynote speech was tailored to reflect the struggle that some NAM members see themselves in against the world's rich and powerful countries.
A draft of the final document that ministers will be asked to approve, made available to The Associated Press as the conference opened Tuesday, reflected that struggle.
"The rich and powerful countries continue to exercise an inordinate influence in determining the nature and direction of international relations, including economic and trade relations, as well as rules governing these relations, many of which are at the expense of developing countries," it said.
NAM countries oppose "unilaterally imposed measures by certain states ... the use and threat of use of force, and pressure and coercive measures as a means to achieving their national policy objectives," said the draft.
That appeared to be an indirect slap at the United States, which has refused to rule out force as a possible means of last resort against Iran unless it heeds UN Security Council demands to curb its nuclear activities.
The draft also condemns "the categorization of countries as good or evil based on unilateral and unjustified criteria" -- oblique criticism of President George W. Bush's labelling of Iran as part of an "axis of evil" along with Saddam Hussein's Iraq and North Korea.
Iran has in the past counted on NAM countries to blunt pressure from the U.S. and its allies for harsh UN sanctions and other penalties because of its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment, which can produce both nuclear fuel or the fissile payload of warheads.
Tehran has been slapped with three sets of UN sanctions because of its nuclear defiance and new penalties loom unless Tehran shows compromise.
