"We didn't have a revolution to have a democracy," he is widely quoted as saying, referring to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
A former Revolutionary Guard commander, Ahmadinejad resurrected platitudes popular in the movement's early days.
"Iran can accomplish anything. Iranians have everything they need themselves to accomplish everything," he said Sunday.
His comments overlooked the fact that Iran's economy is staggering under the weight of high unemployment, double-digit inflation and interest rates of 25-30 percent on personal loans.
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana ruled out yesterday an immediate change to the bloc's nuclear policy with Iran.
Solana said the 25-nation EU would stand by an agreement reached in a meeting with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani in Geneva at the end of May.
"At that time, we offered the possibility of presenting to the Iranian leaders around the end of July ... a comprehensive proposal for them to analyse. We don't have any reason to change at this point in time," Solana told reporters.
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