TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal may have "spoken in anger" when he warned Iran over the crisis in Lebanon.

"I hope what you have quoted him as saying is not correct," Ahmadinejad said in response to a question about Faisal's warning that Iranian relations with the Arab world would be affected if Tehran was supporting what he described as a "coup" in Lebanon. "We think it could have been out of anger and we will wait until his anger has cooled down and then we will talk," Ahmadinejad said. "We do not know how much his views are in line with King Abdullah's," he said. "We will not respond out of respect for King Abdullah."

The comments from Faisal, whose country is a strong backer of the Western-backed government in Lebanon, came after six days of deadly fighting between Shiite opposition groups led by the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah and government allies.