Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who triggered the demise of the Soviet Union, said in an interview that the United States was "intoxicated" by its power and should not impose its will on others.

Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet President listens, December 2005, in Rennes, northern France. [AFP]

"This talk of pre-emptive strikes, of ignoring the UN Security Council and international legal obligations -- all this is leading toward a dark night," Gorbachev told Time magazine.

"I think some people may be pushing president Bush in the wrong direction," he said of the US leader.

"America is intoxicated by its position as the world's only superpower. It wants to impose its will."

"But America needs to get over that. It has responsibilities as well as power. I say this as a good friend of America," said Gorbachev Sunday, who considered his US contemporary, president Ronald Reagan, a friend as well, and attended his funeral.

The former Soviet president, 75, was in the United States last week to promote his book on the history of his government's reforms.