TEHRAN, Nov 12: Iran vowed on Sunday to deliver a “destructive” response to any Israeli military attack on its atomic sites and to continue efforts to massively ramp up its capacity for sensitive nuclear work.

Foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Iran was still seeking to instal 3,000 centrifuges by March 2007 at an atomic plant to enrich uranium, a process the West fears could be diverted to make nuclear weapons.

His comments came after a top Israeli official refused to rule out a strike on the Islamic republic to halt the progress of Iran's atomic programme, with the United Nations still unable to agree sanctions against Tehran.

“Israel does not have the means and the capability to dare threaten Iran ... if it commits such a stupidity, the Islamic republic and its defenders will give a destructive response within a second,” Hosseini said.

Israel – widely considered the Middle East's sole nuclear power – is within the range of Iran's ballistic missiles and sees the Islamic republic as its chief enemy, pointing to calls from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the Jewish state to be “wiped off the map”.

“I am not advocating an Israeli preemptive military action against Iran ...

I consider it a last resort. But even the last resort is sometimes the only resort,” Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh said in comments published on Friday.

Hosseini said “Iranian officials and experts were still seeking to” instal 3,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment, reaffirming a target which would allow Iran to enrich uranium on an industrial scale. He added that the work would take place under the supervision of the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Enriched uranium lies at the centre of the dispute over Iran's nuclear program, as it can be used both to make nuclear fuel and the core of a nuclear bomb.—AFP