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After Iranian and Russian engineers began loading fuel into Iran's first nuclear power plant on Saturday, Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al Khalifa said his country would not allow the US to use its territory to launch an attack against "any country."

Khalifa was quoted by the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat as saying Saturday that the existence of an American military base in Bahrain does not mean his country would permit it to be used "to attack Iran or other countries."

On Thursday Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country's "brothers and allies in the Persian Gulf would not allow their territory to be used for a strike on Iran.

"The leaders of these countries are aware of the Israeli-American plots in the region, and despite the fact that we do not believe war will break out, we are prepared for all possibilities," he said.