Iran said on Tuesday that all the world's nuclear weapons should be destroyed, shortly after North Korea said it had conducted its third nuclear test in defiance of United Nations resolutions.

"We think we need to come to a point where no country will have any nuclear weapons," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a weekly news conference when asked about the test. "All weapons of mass destruction and nuclear arms need to be destroyed."

Mehmanparast added that all countries should be able to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Iran is under UN sanctions over its own nuclear programme, which the United States and some of its allies suspect is aimed at developing an atomic weapons capability. Iran denies that charge and says its programme is purely peaceful.

The North said its test on Tuesday had "greater explosive force" than the 2006 and 2009 tests, which were widely seen as small-scale. The test drew swift international condemnation. – Reuters