US lawmakers yesterday denounced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's plans to join a major UN nuclear disarmament summit next week in New York and urged he not be given a visa to attend.

"This is preposterous, and allowing it to happen will make a mockery of the effort to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to rogue states and terrorist groups," 14 Republican senators wrote to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"There is simply no compelling reason for Ahmadinejad to be allowed to enter the United States," they said. "The US government has the legal authority to deny Mr Ahmadinejad's request and bar his entry - even if he is transiting only to the United Nations. We ask that you exercise that authority."

Republican Senator John Cornyn led the group of senators, who wrote their letter after Iran's UN mission said Mr Ahmadinejad had applied Wednesday for a US visa to lead Iran's delegation to the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) review conference.

The summit, which opens Monday at UN headquarters in New York, comes as the United States and its partners seek to craft a new UN resolution imposing a fresh round of sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme.

Iran denies the charges that its civilian nuclear programme hides a covert quest for an atomic arsenal, but has refused to freeze uranium enrichment, which can be a key step towards developing a nuclear weapon.

Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen led a bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House of Representatives in condemning as an "outrage" plans to give Mr Ahmadinejad a visa that could let him "preach hate and violence on American soil."

"Make no mistake: Ahmadinejad's attendance will make a mockery of a conference meant to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons," they said.

"It will also make a mockery of US efforts to secure global support to stop Iran's nuclear weapons pursuit, and it will turn the conference into yet another forum to attack Israel on a global stage," they wrote.

"The US must not allow this dangerous tyrant to use our freedoms and our obligations as a host country for the UN to force himself upon our country to spread his message of hate and violence," said the lawmakers.

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