MANAMA (Reuters/AFP) - Iran told Gulf Arab states on Saturday it was not a threat and wanted cooperation, in an apparent attempt to lower tensions after revelations that Gulf Arab leaders are deeply anxious about its nuclear programme. In his first trip to the region since Wikileaks published US diplomatic reports of Gulf Arab worries about Tehran, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a Gulf security conference in Bahrain a more powerful Iran was nothing to fear. Our power in the region is your power and your power in the region is our power, he said in a speech to an audience including Gulf Arab officials and ministers. Our growth will only pave the way for others to grow. His speech did not mention the publication by the Wikileaks website last week of hundreds of US embassy cables including several quoting Arab leaders as expressing strong opposition to the possibility of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. But he said We must not allow Western media to tell us what we think of one another .... We have never used our potential to become powerful against any neighbours especially because our neighbours are Muslims. There should be no suspicion or ambition by one country over another because that would undermine efforts to establish cooperation, he told the Manama Dialogue conference of UK-based think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies. One notable Wikileaks document cited Saudi King Abdullah as urging the United States to attack Irans nuclear installations. He was reported to have advised Washington to cut off the head of the snake while there was still time. Mottaki said Irans neighbours should not submit to pressures from outsiders that stoked unhealthy rivalries and weakened the regions drive for self-sufficiency, and the region had nothing to fear from Irans nuclear energy development. Giving concrete details about Gulf Arab achievements that Iran supported, Mottaki said Tehran was happy to see Gulf Arab nations discussing economic cooperation among themselves. He added: We are happy when we see women enter parliaments in Kuwait and Bahrain, and when the petrochemical industry in Saudi Arabia has become very advanced in the world, and when Bahrain becomes a banking centre. We are happy to see the balances of Arab countries reach two trillion dollars and that Iraq is nearing stability and the oil industry is flourishing. He said that in recent days on visits around the Gulf he had been told how officials wanted to deepen ties with Iran. he declined to elaborate. Irans economy has been unaffected by sanctions imposed by the West to curb its nuclear programme, Mottaki said on Saturday. The sanctions had no effect on the economy, Mottaki told a news conference in Bahrain. His remarks disputed comments by US officials ahead of Mondays nuclear talks between Iran and major powers that US and UN sanctions on Iran have taken the Islamic republics regime by surprise. William Burns, the top US negotiator for the so-called P5+1 talks with Iran, said the sanctions were sharply isolating Iran from the global financial system.