TEHRAN (Reuters) - An adviser of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said there was a plot to assassinate the Iranian president during a U.N. food crisis summit in Italy earlier this month, an Iranian daily reported on Tuesday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attends an official ceremony in Tehran June 15, 2008. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi

It came a few days after Ahmadinejad, who often rails against the West, accused the United States and its allies of plotting to kidnap and kill him during a visit to neighboring Iraq in March.

Presidential adviser Ali Zabihi said Ahmadinejad’s policies since his election in 2005 were threatening “the illegitimate interests” of many foreign powers and domestic circles, the Etemad-e Melli daily reported.

“Therefore they are thinking about his dismissal or assassination,” Zabihi said in the northwestern city of Tabriz.

A plan to kidnap Ahmadinejad in Baghdad in March and a plot to assassinate him at this month’s three-day summit in Rome were part of this, he said, without giving details, adding: “Both of those were aborted with God’s help.”

Ahmadinejad, widely expected to stand for re-election next year, visited Rome on June 3.

Reformist critics of the president have asked why the Iranian government has not lodged an official complaint about the alleged plot.

“Another assassination claim,” the reformist Mardomsalari said in a front-page headline on Tuesday.

On Friday, Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by state radio: “Based on reliable intelligence, our enemies had plans to kidnap and kill your servant (Ahmadinejad). But we intentionally made last-minute changes in our schedule.”

A U.S. military official in Baghdad said he was unaware of any threats against Ahmadinejad during his visit to Iraq.

During the first visit by an Iranian leader to Iraq since the neighbors fought an eight-year war in the 1980s, Ahmadinejad cancelled his scheduled visit to Shi’ite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf in southern Iraq.

The presidential office said at the time the trip was cancelled for security reasons.

The United States accuses Iran of funding, arming and training Shi’ite militias in Iraq. Iran denies the charge.

The two are also at odds over U.S. claims, denied by Tehran, that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons.