Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sought to clarify his remarks calling for the "destruction" of Israel by likening its disappearance from the world to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Ahmadinejad said that the Palestinian people should be able to vote on their own independence, and he suggested that means Israel would no longer be a state.

"The Soviet Union: where is it now as an entity? It disappeared," Ahmadinejad told reporters in response to a question about his past remarks on Israel. "Was it done through war? No, it was done through the choice of the people. So allow the Palestinian people to decide for themselves." dpa cc ff