JERUSALEM, Oct 29: Israel on Monday injected fresh urgency into its campaign for more sanctions against Iran, assailing the UN nuclear watchdog chief for saying there was no proof Tehran wanted atomic weapons.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, on a three-day visit to Beijing, met members of the Communist Party and senior academics in an effort to win China’s support for a third round of UN sanctions.

“We must rise above national interests or economical considerations and think about the grave implications that a nuclear Iran will have on the stability of the planet,” Livni told Beijing’s People’s University.

China has a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, which would have to approve any further sanctions on the Islamic republic over its controversial nuclear activities, and it also has strong economic ties with Tehran.

“It is time to expand them and adopt a new Security Council resolution...on new deeper and more effective sanctions,” her ministry quoted her as saying at a meeting with heads of the Chinese research centre.

Livni’s visit comes less than a week after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert jetted to Britain, France and Russia to ratchet up pressure for sanctions against Iran, which Israel fears is seeking to develop a nuclear bomb.

Tehran flatly denies that it has any atomic armament ambitions and insists that its activities are for civilian purposes only.

But although three of the five UN Security Council members – Britain, France and the United States – strongly support new sanctions, Russia and China have so far opposed this.

Livni warned that a nuclear Iran would create a ‘domino effect’ in the Middle East by sparking a nuclear arms race that would undermine moderate governments in the already highly volatile region.—AFP