Iran's President has said the two US election candidates offer voters a choice between "bad" and "worse".

Hassan Rouhani criticised the presidential battle that has seen Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump fight a bitter campaign littered with personal attacks.

In scathing remarks to a crowd in the city of Arak, he said: "Did you see the debate and the way of their speaking, accusing and mocking each other?

"Do we want such a democracy and election in our country?"

He added: "America claims it has more than 200 years of democracy, and they have had 50 presidential elections, but there is no morality in that country."


Image: The president says he was asked for his preference at a UN meeting

In the comments, broadcast live on television, he said he had been asked at a UN meeting last month which candidate he preferred.

"I said, what? Should I prefer bad to worse or worse to bad?" President Rouhani told the crowd in the western Iran city.

He did not state which candidate he believed was "worse" but the comments are his first public thoughts on the election.

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The US presidential battle has seen regular mudslinging and scandal.

The Republican candidate has called Mrs Clinton a "nasty woman" and threatened to jail her over her email scandal if he becomes president.

Mrs Clinton has said Mr Trump would be a "puppet" of Russia's Vladimir Putin if elected.

Relations between the US and Iran are still frosty, despite lifting of sanctions against Iran in January after it complied with a deal to stop it producing nuclear weapons.

Full diplomatic ties have not been in place since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution and the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran.