Israeli PM Olmert calls for new sanctions against Iran

Tokyo: Ehud Olmert, Israeli Prime Minister, called on Monday for new UN sanctions against Iran in response to Tehran's failure to provide satisfying answers answers to reports showing work linked to atomic bombs.

The IAEA report showed Iran was continuing with a nuclear weapons programme and the UN Security Council should impose more sanctions, the Israeli prime minister said.

"If we had formulated the report, we would have made it sharper," Olmert told reporters on the flight to Tokyo, where he will stay until Thursday.

"The basic fact doesn't change. There is a plan to create non-conventional weapons. It must be stopped."

On Friday, Iran was confronted by the IAEA with western intelligence reports, and Tehran still did not clarify the documents referring to undeclared efforts to ‘weaponise' nuclear materials.

Olmert arrived in Tokyo on Monday on his first visit to Japan as prime minister. He will meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the Japanese capital on Thursday.