"The new occupants of the Elysee want to copy the White House," the state-run IRNA news agency wrote in an editorial, referring to the French presidential palace.

It said that since Nicolas Sarkozy took over as president from Jacques Chirac and promoted closer ties with the United States, "he has taken on an American skin".

"The French people will never forget the era when a non-European moved into the Elysee," it said.

The withering comments came after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the world should brace for a possible war over Iran's nuclear drive, which has already been the target of two sets of UN sanctions.

"We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war," Kouchner said in a television interview. Sarkozy has himself bluntly warned that Iran risks being bombed if the nuclear crisis is not resolved

IRNA added: "The occupants of the Elysee have become the executors of the will of the White House and have adopted a tone that is even harder, even more inflammatory and more illogical than that of Washington."

France has economic interests in Iran, especially in the oil and automobile industries, but its line on the nuclear standoff has hardened considerably since Sarkozy came to power.

Iran vehemently denies US accusations it is seeking an atomic weapon, saying its nuclear drive is aimed at providing electricity for a growing population whose fossil fuels will one day run out.

But the United States has never ruled out using military strikes to punish Iran for its defiance and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday that "all options are on the table."

Iran has said it will never initiate any attack but will respond with crushing force if the United States launches any strike on its territory.

A top general in the elite Revolutionary Guards boasted that Iran's missiles could hit a range of targets belonging to US troops operating in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Today the Americans are around our country but this does not mean that they are encircling us. They are encircled themselves and are within our range," General Mohammad Hassan Koussechi told IRNA.

"If the United States is saying that they have identified 2,000 targets in Iran, then what is certain is that it is the Americans who are all around Iran and are equally our targets."

Amid the increased tensions, there have also been questions over whether a mysterious air strike Syria accuses Israel of staging on its territory last week was meant as a warning to Iran.

Hawkish US ex-UN ambassador John Bolton said: "I think this is a clear message not only to Syria, this is a clear message to Iran as well that its continued efforts to acquire nuclear weapons are not going to go unanswered."

Israel, which has expressed alarm over Iran's nuclear ambitions and urged world powers to take a tougher line, has maintained a wall of silence over the incident.

The Jewish state meanwhile welcomed Kouchner's stark warning.

"Strong declarations by the world community show that it will not remain with its arms crossed. They are positive as they send a clear message to Tehran," foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev told AFP.

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