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Israel to press US for military threat on Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will tell US vice president Joe Biden on Sunday that only a credible military threat can deter Iran from building a nuclear weapon, Israeli political sources said.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will tell US vice president Joe Biden on Sunday that only a credible military threat can deter Iran from building a nuclear weapon, Israeli political sources said.

In comments signalling growing Israeli impatience with diplomacy, the sources in Jerusalem said Netanyahu, beginning a five-day US visit, will argue that economic sanctions have failed to persuade Iran to stop its nuclear program.

Netanyahu and Biden were meeting on the sidelines of an American Jewish conference in New Orleans that both are due to address.

"The only way to ensure that Iran will not go nuclear is to create a credible threat of military action against it if it doesn't cease its race for a nuclear weapon," one of the sources said Netanyahu planned to tell the vice president.

"The economic sanctions are making it difficult for Iran, but there is no sign that the Ayatollah regime plans to stop its nuclear program because of them."

The tough talk swiftly raised speculation in Israeli media that Netanyahu was trying to shift international focus away from the current impasse in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Asked about the comments, an Israeli official travelling with Netanyahu said the prime minister, who is also scheduled to see secretary of state Hillary Clinton in New York on Thursday, would call in all his meetings in the United States for pressure to be stepped up against Iran.

A spokesperson for Netanyahu also said the Israeli leader would discuss with Biden and Clinton ways to revive direct peace talks with the Palestinians that came to a halt some three weeks after they began in a dispute over construction in  Jewish settlements.

Netanyahu will not see US President Barack Obama during the trip. Obama is on a visit to Asia.

The West believes that Iran aims to use its uranium enrichment program to build atomic weapons, and both Israel and the United States have said all options are on the table in dealing with its nuclear ambitions.

But Netanyahu had made clear that Israel wanted to see if tough economic sanctions could eliminate what it has described as a threat against its existence.

Tehran denies it is out to produce nuclear arms.

The sources said Netanyahu would tell the United States that the only time Iran stopped its nuclear program was in 2003, when it believed there was a threat of American military action.

The US visit will give Netanyahu an opportunity to gauge the impact of last week's Republican rout of Obama's Democrats in the midterm congressional elections.

Israeli political commentators have said the strengthening of Israel's traditional Republican allies in Congress could constrain Obama's ability to pressure Netanyahu to bend on the settlement issue.

Netanyahu has rebuffed US and international calls to reimpose a freeze on building in Jewish enclaves in the West Bank, occupied territory Palestinians want as part of a future state.

A 10-month moratorium on housing starts in West Bank settlements expired in late September and Clinton said on Thursday she was working nonstop to break the deadlock.

A top Palestinian official said on Thursday the Palestinians would give the United States several more weeks to try to relaunch direct peace talks with Israel.

Netanyahu addresses the general assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America on Monday before flying to New York for a meeting with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

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