Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed a British newspaper report that said Iran is working on a trigger for a nuclear bomb as a "fabrication," in an interview with US television released on Sunday.

Ahmadinejad waved away a copy of the purported document when presented it by ABC news anchor Diane Sawyer during a sit-down interview, according to excerpts released ahead of its scheduled airing Monday.

When asked on ABC's "This Week" program on Sunday about Ahmadinejad's assertion that the documents were a US fabrication, senior White House David Axelrod dismissed the talk as "nonsense."

Axelrod said Tehran would face "consequences" if it did not change direction, with time is running out ahead of a year-end deadline for Iran to seize the US offer of diplomatic engagement for resolving nuclear and other issues.

Iran insists its nuclear program is solely for civilian purposes and rejects Western suspicions that it is covertly trying to develop a bomb. 

-AFP/NOW Lebanon