TEHRAN, February 6 (RIA Novosti) - A U.S. military attack on Iran is possible while George Bush is U.S. president, a deputy chief of Iran's General Staff said Wednesday.

"The threat from the U.S. has existed ever since the Islamic Revolution in Iran [in 1979]. And the threat only got worse during the Bush presidency era," the General Staff said in a statement.

"While Bush is in power, that is throughout 2008, U.S. military action against the Islamic Republic is still likely," Gholamali Rashid said.

Rashid said Iran's Armed Forces are ready to repel any external attack. "We will defend our national interests at any cost and will defeat the enemy with our shocking might."

The media reported last fall that the Bush administration was planning to bomb Iran following the failure of U.S. diplomatic efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem.

In October, Bush said a third world war could erupt if Iran obtained nuclear weapons.

The White House has denied reports about a possible attack on Iran and has stressed its adherence to a diplomatic settlement to the problem.

In early January patrol boats of the Iranian Islamic Revolution's Guards Corps approached U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran said the boats did so to request identification, but the Pentagon insisted that the Iranian speedboats had threatened to attack them.

Tensions remain high between the U.S. and Iran over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, despite the release of a report by the U.S. intelligence community in December 2007 stating that Iran was not seeking to build nuclear weapons.

Iran has denied plans to build nuclear weapons saying it needs nuclear energy for solely civilian purposes.