Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said here Tuesday that his country would not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

"That was our position, that is our position and that will remain our position," he said after talks with his German counterpart Angela Merkel.

In an interview with a German television station broadcast on Monday, Olmert appeared to list Israel among the world's nuclear powers, violating the country's long-standing policy of not officially acknowledging that it has atomic weapons.

Israel, which foreign experts say has the sixth-largest nuclear arsenal in the world, has stuck to a policy of ambiguity on nuclear weapons for decades, refusing to confirm or deny whether it has them.

The comments came days after incoming US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, in testimony to a Senate committee, identified Israel as a nuclear power. Gates' comments irked Israeli officials.

With Olmert's quote featured on the front pages of all of Israel's major papers Tuesday and with political rivals calling for his resignation, aides to Olmert who was in Berlin yesterday on a state visit hurriedly said the remark had been misinterpreted.

Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin said the prime minister had been listing not nuclear states but "responsible nations."

"The prime minister stated clearly that Israel will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East," Eisin said, adding that the quote had been "taken out of context."

But the damage control did little to stem the uproar, adding to the already considerable political difficulties of a prime minister whose popularity has plunged since this summer's costly and inconclusive war in Lebanon.

In a front-page editorial, the daily Haaretz slammed Olmert, who it said "preferred to forget that he was prime minister, not another commentator" or minor politician.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, of the hardline Likud, another opposition party, said the comment could hurt Israel's attempt to get the international community to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Shalom said Olmert "gave tools" to Israel's enemies, allowing them to say: "Why are you dealing only with Iran while Israel is confirming that it has the same kind of weapons?"

In another development, Olmert and Merkel told a joint press conference after talks that they were concerned at Iran's nuclear program, vowing to support UN efforts to impose sanctions on Tehran.

But Merkel ruled out a military strike against Iran, saying it was not on the table.
She pledged to revive the flagging Middle East peace process when Germany takes the rotating presidency of the European Union on Jan. 1.

Olmert hailed these efforts but noted the basis for such efforts should be the so-called roadmap peace plan and the Middle Quartet comprised of the UN, the EU, Russia and the United States.

The two leaders did not go into their differences over whether to involve Syria in the Middle East peace process after Olmert criticized German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier's last week Damascus visit as a mistake.

But Merkel insisted that the trip was useful to obtain a first-hand view of the situation, but the signals that Steinmeier brought back with him were "anything but positive."

She told a news briefing before meeting Olmert that there would be no peace in the Middle East without Syria's involvement, adding Syria had to be a partner simply because it was there.

Olmert, who is on a two-visit to Germany, is scheduled to meet German President Horst Koehler before traveling to Italy.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily December 13, 2006)