CNN) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has expressed "dismay" over the Iranian president's comments urging the destruction of Israel.

Annan, in a statement issued Thursday, reminded "all member states that Israel is a long-standing member of the United Nations with the same rights and obligations as every other member."

It added that "under the United Nations Charter, all members have undertaken to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday lambasted Israel and Zionism and quoted the late Ayatollah Khomeini calling for Israel to be "wiped out from the map."

In response, Israel's prime minister has suggested that Tehran should be expelled from the United Nations.

Ariel Sharon, in remarks issued Thursday by the Israeli government press office, said he believes any country that calls for the destruction of another cannot be a member of the United Nations.

The U.N. statement didn't address that contention.

But it said Annan "had already decided to visit Iran during the next few weeks, to discuss other issues.

"He now intends to place the Middle East peace process, and the right of all states in the area to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force, at the top of his agenda for that visit."

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday called comments by Iran's president "completely and totally unacceptable."

"I felt a real sense of revulsion at those remarks," said Blair, who spoke at a press briefing after a European Union summit near London.

"There has been a long time in which I've been answering questions on Iran with everyone saying to me 'tell us you're not going to do anything about Iran,'" he said.

"If they carry on like this, the question people are going to be asking us is, 'When are you going to do something about this,' because you imagine a state like that with an attitude like that having a nuclear weapon."

Ahmadinejad comments were made during a meeting with protesting students at Iran's Interior Ministry.

He quoted a remark from Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, that Israel "must be wiped out from the map of the world."

The president then said: "And God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism," according to a quote published by Iran's state news outlet, the Islamic Republic News Agency.

The remarks by Ahmadinejad coincided with a month-long protest against Israel called "World Without Zionism" and with the approach of Jerusalem Day.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Ahmadinejad's views "underscores our concern and the international community's concerns about Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons."

Ottawa also issued a strong rebuke, with Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew saying: "We cannot tolerate comments of such hatred, such anti-Semitism, such intolerance. These comments are all the more troubling given that we know of Iran's nuclear ambitions."

I've been living in America too long I suppose, because I'm still rather confused as to why the Jewish state of Israel is so controversial to every other neighboring country and state. It's almost like it's been going on for so long that people don't even have a true reason anymore. And what's with anti-Semitism? I just don't get what's so wrong with one type of people.

Yeah I heard about this, weve been pretty quick to condemn what theyve said as stated in your quote. I agree, its dispicible for him to say something like this, if they do develop an arsenal of nuclear weapons then we could be looking at a smaller version of the cold war in the middle east..vert scary indeed.