Apparently we have it all wrong. Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is just an average person. Sez who? Sez Mahmoud Ahmadinejad himself.

"I am an ordinary person, a father, a husband, a brother, an uncle, a friend," he tells AFP in an interview.

"I live just like everyone else," the 53-year-old said with a laugh.

"I have a family," made up of a wife, two sons and a daughter. "We go to family get-togethers, we go out. We play sports."

He lives "just like everyone else?"

Ahmadinejad says his life is normal for a devout Muslim living in the Islamic Republic.

"Who said I hate the West?" he asks, turning the original question on its head. "I just disagree with some of the things done by some politicians who are not honest and behave badly in the West."

(snip)

"We are not afraid of America," he repeats over and over, demanding respect and honesty from the international community as a pre-requisite for improved diplomatic relations and perhaps a deal on Iran's uranium enrichment programme."

Just like everyone else. If you're a devout Muslim living in the Islamic Republic.