Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent an 18-page treatise to President Bush that details alleged American foreign policy misdeeds and defending scientific research as "one of the basic rights of nations".
The document argues generally that globally shared religious values must govern political life but makes no proposals for resolving the West's differences with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions.
Tehran's letter appears to draw analogies between the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and US threats against Iran, suggesting the United States lied to justify the war and is now suffering the consequences.
"On the pretext of the existence of WMDs (weapons of mass destruction), this great tragedy came to engulf both the peoples of the occupied and the occupying country. Later it was revealed that no WMDs existed to begin with," the Iranian leader wrote in the letter, translated from Farsi.
"Lies were told in the Iraqi matter. What was the result? I have no doubt that telling lies is reprehensible in any culture, and you do not like to be lied to," Mr Ahmadinejad said.
Iran insists it is enriching uranium - and improving its techniques - solely to produce electricity for domestic consumption, while the West argues the programme is a cover for making nuclear weapons.
The UN Security Council is weighing a British-French draft resolution, backed by the United States, demanding Iran suspend enrichment, but parts of the text have run into opposition from veto-wielding Russia and China.
The letter, received by the White House on Monday but not made public in Washington, was the first publicly announced personal communication from an Iranian president to his US counterpart since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The United States and Iran severed diplomatic ties in 1980, after radical students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and seized 52 Americans, holding them hostage for 444 days.