U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday targeted Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, arguing "Iran may be heading toward a military dictatorship".

The IRGC, set up after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution to protect the ruling system against internal and external threats, has about 125,000 fighters with army, navy and air units. It operates separately from the 350,000-strong regular army and answers to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's top authority.

Speaking in a televised session with students in Qatar, Clinton also denied the United States planned to attack Iran and said Washington wanted "dialogue" with Tehran.

Asked if Washington planned to attack Iran, she replied: "No, we are planning to try to bring the world community together in applying pressure to Iran through sanctions adopted by the United Nations that will be particularly aimed at those enterprises controlled by the Revolutionary Guard, which we believe is, in effect, supplanting the government of Iran."

"That is how we see it. We see that the government of Iran, the supreme leader, the president, the parliament, is being supplanted and that Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship. That is our view."

"We're still hoping that Iran will decide to forego any ... ambitions for a nuclear weapon," Clinton said. "But we cannot just keep hoping for that. We have to work to take action to try to convince the Iranian government not to pursue nuclear weapons," Clinton said.

Clinton is also visiting Saudi Arabia where she will seek more diplomatic pressure on Iran.

Arab states are uneasy about the possibility that military atatck by Israel against Iran could profoundly destabilize the region.

Israel, most experts estimate that it has at least between 100 and 200 nuclear warheads, considers the Islamic republic its top enemy and often threatens the country with an attack.

Agencies