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(Reuters) - The latest sanctions against Iran are pathetic, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday, warning world powers they would regret their bullying.

In his first speech since U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law sanctions targeting Iran's vulnerable fuel imports, Ahmadinejad said the measures would not hurt the economy or stop Iran taking a greater role in world affairs.

"They know that there is a sleeping lion in Iran which is waking up and if she wakes up all the relationships in the world will change," he told industrialists. "Their pathetic acts show they know what a great human power is hidden in Iran."

The U.S. law followed sanctions agreed by the U.N. Security Council and the European Union, all aimed at pressuring Tehran to curb a nuclear program some countries fear is aimed at making a bomb -- something Iran denies.

"They thought that by having meetings and talking to each other and signing papers they could stop a great nation's progress," Ahmadinejad said.

"Iran is much greater than what they can perceive it in their small minds," he added. "We know that if this Iranian civilization awakes then there would be no more room for arrogant, corrupt and bullying powers."