Ahmadinejad won't visit Ground Zero

NEW YORK — Iran's president says he will stay away from Ground Zero after city officials and victims' families expressed outrage that he would set foot on the hallowed ground.

"Well, over there, local officials need to make the necessary coordinations. If they can't do that, I won't insist," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told CBS' "60 Minutes" Thursday in Iran.

Ahmadinejad, who will visit New York next week for the United Nations General Assembly meeting, said he was baffled that Americans would be angry if he placed a wreath at the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"Why should it be insulting?" he asked Scott Pelley of "60 Minutes."

"Many innocent people were killed there. Some of those people were American citizens obviously," Ahmadinejad said.

"We obviously are very much against any terrorist action and any killing. And also we are very much against any plots to sow the seeds of discord among nations. Usually you go to these sites to pay your respects. And also to perhaps to air your views about the root causes of such incidents."

New York police denied Ahmadinejad's request, citing security concerns.

New York City Council speaker Christine Quinn asked Columbia University to withdraw a speaking invitation to Ahmadinejad, and Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson said if he were president, he would not let Ahmadinejad enter the United States, while fellow GOP candidate John McCain also criticized Columbia over Monday's planned speech.

President Bush, asked to comment on the decision not to allow the visit to the World Trade Center site, told reporters in Washington: "I can understand why they would not want somebody that's running a country who's a state sponsor of terror down there at the site."