TEHRAN – Lebanese militant and convicted murderer Samir Kantar, who was released by Israel in a prisoner swap last year, called for the destruction of Israel during a visit to Tehran on Thursday.

"We have to resist against American occupation because Americans are the supporters of the tyrants and in the region we have to resist the Zionist regime and destroy it," Kantar said in a speech before being honoured by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Kantar was released in July 2008 as part of a prisoner swap between Lebanon and Israel after three decades of imprisonment in Israel.

Described as a monster in Israel where he was convicted of killing three people, including a policeman and a four-year-old girl in a notorious attack nearly three decades ago, Kantar is considered a hero by some in Lebanon.

He said he appreciated the role played by Tehran in supporting the Lebanese and Palestinian "resistance" to Israel.

"Today we meet in Iran and we are on the threshold of the 30th anniversary of a great revolution led by the great imam Khomeini," he said referring to the overthrow of Iran's monarchy in 1979.

He said he still wanted to confront Israel.

"I stayed in prison for 30 years and I am still waiting for the date to confront the occupying enemy," he said.

"Every drop of blood and every bit of pain we went through is the price we paid for victory. This was the situation in Iran, in Lebanon in 2000 and in 2006. Gaza is waiting for a similar future."

Ahmadinejad gave Kantar a statue of two prisoners trying to break through the bars of a jail cell, as the two men kissed each other in greeting.

Iran's hardline president himself has drawn global outrage for calling for Israel to be wiped off the map and describing the Holocaust as a myth. -AFP