"One can see the level of the enemy's grudge in the way he was assassinated. The method of bombing was a Zionist one," the Mehr news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. It did not elaborate.

Massoud Ali Mohammadi, a particle physics professor at prestigious Tehran University, died when a bomb strapped to a motorbike was triggered by remote control as he was leaving his home on Tuesday morning.

"He was a Hezbollahi and pious university professor serving his people," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Khuzestan province, using a term indicating a person's dedication to the Islamic republic's regime.

"The enemies by killing the elite cannot take away the knowledge from the Iranian nation," the president added.

Iranian officials have accused the CIA and Mossad, the intelligence agencies respectively of the United States and Israel, of having a hand in the scientist's murder.

A senior Israeli official in Jerusalem, who asked not to be named, declined to respond to Ahmadinejad's accusation, saying that "Israel consistently refuses to comment on such issues."

In Tehran, several thousand mourners joined a funeral procession from Ali Mohammadi's home in an affluent northern neighbourhood to a nearby shrine, an AFP correspondent said.

Around 100 policemen were deployed during the funeral.

Relatives and members of the elite Revolutionary Guards placed Ali Mohammadi's body in an ambulance which then took it for burial at the shrine.

A military band led the procession followed by hundreds of mourners, many chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."

Mourners also chanted slogans against "hypocrites" -- the Islamic republic's term for the outlawed People's Mujahedeen which some have accused of involvement in the assassination, despite its denials.

Some chanted that "nuclear energy is our undeniable right," referring to accusations by officials that the killing was an attempt by Western powers to disrupt Iran's controversial nuclear programme.

Veto-wielding UN Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany are to meet over the weekend in New York to consider new sanctions against Tehran over its atomic programme.

Ahmadinejad's media adviser, meanwhile, told AFP that the United States, Britain and Israel were "high on the list of suspects" for Ali Mohammadi's murder.

"Our security and intelligence apparatus are pursuing those behind the blast to bring them to justice as soon as possible," said Ali Akbar Javanfekr.

"America, Britain and Israel have the most animosity towards our scientific progress, especially the nuclear programme, so when our scientists are targeted they become high on the list of suspects," he said.

Similar allegations by other officials of US involvement have been dismissed out of hand by Washington.

Neither the Iranian police nor the intelligence services have yet reported any leads in their investigation.

Ali Mohammadi's political affiliation remains unclear. People close to him have stressed his close links with the elite Revolutionary Guards, where he seems to have worked for more than 20 years until 2003.

Official media and regime hardliners have referred to him as "a revolutionary teacher who was martyred."

But several opposition websites said Ali Mohammadi was among the academics whose name appeared in a June letter supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated presidential election candidate and current opposition leader.

"The unjust martyrdom of Dr Massoud Ali Mohammadi, the renowned physics professor from Tehran University, shows the bitter reality that the enemies of Iran want to use the crisis situation for their own gain," Mousavi said in a message of condolences on his Kaleme.org website on Thursday.

"Definitely this is part of a large plot which calls for everyone to seek to uncover it, regardless of their political affiliations," he added.

earlier related report
China sending lower level rep to six-power meet on Iran
Washington (AFP) Jan 14, 2010 - China will send a lower-level representative to a meeting of six world powers on Iran's nuclear program, a State Department spokesman said Thursday.

"We are aware that the representation will be below the level of political director," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. "It will be a useful meeting to have regardless of the Chinese representation."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Monday that the six powers -- veto-wielding UN Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany -- would meet over the weekend in New York to consider new sanctions against Tehran.

The United States and other western powers fear that Iran is developing fissile material for nuclear weapons under the cover of a uranium enrichment program the Islamic republic says is aimed at providing civilian nuclear energy.

Washington and the three European members of the group have been trying for months to persuade Russia and China to set aside their reluctance to impose new sanctions.

Last week, China's ambassador to the United Nations reiterated Beijing's position that it was premature to adopt sanctions against Iran, insisting that diplomacy still had a role to play in getting Tehran to the negotiating table.

"We're gonna work on this issue with our partners," said Crowley.

"We continue to engage China and other countries to convince them that the urgency of the situation requires not only additional engagement, but additional support for additional pressure, which obviously China is still working through."

The State Department's political chief Bill Burns has been in Moscow since Wednesday to prepare for Saturday's meeting.

He is scheduled to travel to Madrid Friday to meet with his counterparts from the European Union and with Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos of Spain, which holds the rotating EU presidency.

The news that, unlike other members of the so-called P5+1, China would not send the political director of its foreign ministry comes after US Internet giant Google charged it had been hit by massive cyber attacks coming from China.

Clinton reacted to that development by saying she would seek an explanation from Beijing. The US diplomatic chief is expected to address the issue during a speech on Internet freedom next week.

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