TEHRAN, Iran – President Ahmadinejad declared yesterday that Israel is a “disgraceful blot” that should be “wiped off the map” – fiery words that Washington said underscores its concern over Iran’s nuclear program.

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speech to thousands of students at a “World Without Zionism” conference set a hard-line foreign policy course sharply at odds with that of his moderate predecessor, echoing the sentiments of the founder of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeinei.

America said Mr. Ahmadinejad’s remarks show that Washington’s fears about Iran’s nuclear program are accurate.

“I think it reconfirms what we have been saying about the regime in Iran,” the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, told reporters in Washington. “It underscores the concerns we have about Iran’s nuclear intentions.”

Mr. Ahmadinejad also condemned Iran’s neighbors, which seek to break new ground in their relations with Israel. “Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury,” state-run television quoted him as saying.

Relations between Israel and several Persian Gulf states have been thawing amid Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in September. Bahrain announced in September it was ending a decades old law banning trade ties with Israel. In October, Qatar said it was donating $6 million to help build a soccer stadium for a mixed Arab-Jewish team, the first such financial assistance by an Arab state for any town inside Israel.

Israel has been at the forefront of nations calling for an end to Iran’s nuclear program, which America and many others in the West say is aimed at acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Iran insists the program is for generating electricity.

Referring to Palestinian Arab suicide bomb attacks in Israel, Mr. Ahmadinejad said: “there is no doubt that the new wave in Palestine will soon wipe off this disgraceful blot from the face of the Islamic world.”

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speech came hours before a Palestinian Arab suicide bomber blew himself up in the Israeli town of Hadera, killing five people. Iran aids several terrorist Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, with support and training through proxies among Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.

“Ahmadinejad has clearly declared the doctrine of his government,” an expert on Middle Eastern affairs, Mohammad Sadeq Hosseini, said. “He is returning Iran to the revolutionary goals it was pursuing in the 1980s.”

Reacting to the Iranian president’s speech, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, said Mr. Ahmadinejad and Hamas’s leader, Mahmoud Zahar, “speak openly about destroying the Jewish state … and it appears the problem with these extremists is that they followed through on their violent declarations with violent actions.”

A former Iranian foreign minister, Ebrahim Yazdi, said Mr. Ahmadinejad’s remarks harmed Iran.

“Such comments provoke the international community against us. It’s not to Iran’s interests at all. It’s harmful to Iran to make such a statement,” he said.

In Madrid, Spain’s foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, summoned Iran’s ambassador to protest Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comments. Mr. Moratinos said he rejected the remarks in the strongest possible terms.

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Baptiste Mattei, also condemned the remarks “with the utmost firmness.”

Mr. Ahmadinejad became president in August after winning elections two months earlier. He replaced Mohammad Khatemi, a reformist who advocated international dialogue and tried to improve relations with the West.

Iran announced earlier this year that it had fully developed solid fuel technology for missiles, a major breakthrough that increases their accuracy. The Shahab-3, with a range of 810 miles to more than 1,200 miles, is capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to Israel and American forces in the Middle East.