Tehran 'will have expertise by 2009'

London: Israel gave warning on Wednesday that Iran must either cooperate with the West over its uranium enrichment programme or face military action.

Ron Prosor, Israel's newly-appointed ambassador to Britain and one of his country's leading experts on Iran's nuclear programme, said Tehran could enrich enough uranium to make an atomic bomb by 2009.

"At the current rate of progress Iran will reach the technical threshold for producing fissile material by 2009," he told The Daily Telegraph.

"This is a global threat and it requires a global response. It should be made clear that if Iran does not cooperate then military confrontation is inevitable. It is either cooperation or confrontation."

Prosor, who served Ehud Olmert, Israeli Prime Minister, as senior adviser on Iran, said time for resolving the nuclear issue was rapidly running out.

'Full verification'

He was non-committal about the possibility of Israel launching military action. "There needs to be full verification of what is happening in Iran," said Prosor, who was speaking for the first time since his arrival in London last month. "In Israel there is a belief that the Iranians are continuing with their nuclear weapons programme."

Prosor spoke after Washington published its latest National Intelligence Assessment, which concluded that Iran had frozen its nuclear weapons programme four years ago.

But Israel and its allies, including President George W. Bush, remain deeply concerned that Iran is continuing to enrich uranium.

"Iran will soon be able to fully control all the elements of enrichment," explained Prosor.

Prosor, 50, who has been immersed in the Iran issue for more than a decade, expressed surprise over Washington's latest intelligence estimate.

However, he said it proved two important points. First, it contradicted Iran's official claim that its nuclear ambitions had always been peaceful by establishing that the country had run a weapons programme, even if it was now suspended. Second, it showed that Iran was continuing to enrich uranium contrary to its international obligations.

"If we take the report at face value then we must conclude that the UN sanctions have had an effect on Iranian decision-making. It is important to keep up the sanctions because they are working," said Prosor.