March 15, 2007	Thursday	Safar 25, 1428

JERUSALEM, March 14: Israel is not “enthusiastic” about using military means to stop Iran's controversial nuclear programme, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday. “The central issue bothering Israel nowadays is Iran,” Olmert's office quoted him as telling representatives of the American Jewish Council.

“I have said before, and I still believe, that we prefer a diplomatic solution to the issue, and we are not enthusiastic about a military solution,” he said during the meeting in Jerusalem.

Believed to be the region's sole if undeclared nuclear power, Israel has accused Iran of trying to make an atomic bomb under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran denies.

Olmert has in the past said Israel did not “rule out” taking military steps against Iran.Also on Wednesday, ultra-nationalist Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman accused European leaders of willing to “sacrifice” the Jewish state to preserve economic ties with Tehran.

“There are elements in Europe that are ready to sacrifice Israel on the alter of their security, of their trade contracts” with Iran, Lieberman said.

“We saw the same phenomenon before World War II. That is how they sacrificed Czechoslovakia. That is how they ignored the Jewish problem,” he said.—AFP