NEW YORK - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brushed off Western criticism Friday over a newly revealed nuclear enrichment plant, saying it was "perfectly legal."

Iran had informed the IAEA international nuclear watchdog about the plant's existence and "should be encouraged for that. It was perfectly legal," he said at a press conference in New York.

Denying that the revelation had plunged relations between Iran and Western powers into crisis, Ahmadinejad said he was "very hopeful" about talks with the IAEA in Geneva on October 1.