Israel to Obama: hold Iran's feet to fire, or else

Israel will go along with US President Barack Obama's Iran diplomacy, but try to shorten the deadline for results by signalling its willingness to attack Iranian nuclear sites if need be.

Israel votes tomorrow and its next Prime Minister - the front-runner is rightwinger Benjamin Netanyahu - is likely to go to Washington within a few months and press Mr Obama to stick to his campaign promise not to let Iran develop an atomic bomb.

Aaron David Miller, a former US Middle East negotiator now at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, said the visit would entail a "strategic conversation" with Mr Obama.

"It need not be conclusive or threatening, but it will be very serious and... scare the daylights out of the president that unless the international community mobilises to address the situation, the Israelis will," said Mr Miller.

Unlike his predecessor, George W. Bush, Mr Obama has offered direct talks with Teheran. But he has yet to define his policy, which officials say is under review. He has spoken of tougher sanctions if needed and has not excluded military action.

Israelis fret that diplomatic overtures will only give Iran more time to perfect its uranium enrichment programme - which the Iranians say is meant to produce electricity, not bombs.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has found no proof of Iranian nuclear bomb-making. But the West sees as sinister Iran's refusal to stop enriching uranium - an activity it is permitted as a Non-Proliferation Treaty signatory.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak called this week for a "strategic agreement" with Washington to ensure that any talks with the Iranians "should be kept short and followed by harsh sanctions and readiness to take action".

And an Israeli legislator and weapons expert, Isaac Ben-Israel, said his country had a year or so to attack Iranian nuclear sites pre-emptively and could do so on its own, even if such strikes would only delay, not destroy, Iran's programme.

Iranian officials dismiss the chance of a blitz by Israel, assumed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, but say Iran would retaliate against Israeli and US interests if attacked.

"We are not worried about an Israeli attack," Aliakbar Javanfekr, an aide to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told Reuters last week, adding that "wise people" in the US and Europe would restrain the Israelis.