Tel Aviv: Israel has proposed a US naval blockade on Iran to stop Tehran from moving ahead with its uranium enrichment programme, Haaretz daily said Wednesday.

According to the daily, during a meeting in Jerusalem with the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed "a naval blockade of Iran", using the US Navy to limit the movements of Iranian merchant ships.

He said that the “present economic sanctions against Iran have run out of steam”, the paper said.

As an alternative, he proposed placing restrictions on Iranian aircraft, businessmen and senior officials at airports throughout the world.

The White House Tuesday categorically denied a report published in the Jerusalem Post that US President George W. Bush intended to attack Iran before the end of his final term of office in Jan 2009.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the article was "not worth the paper it's written on".

Iran has defied three rounds of UN sanctions imposed over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, which many western countries say is being used by Tehran as a cover for nuclear weapons development. Iran says the programme is necessary for its energy production.

 

Source : IANS