Describing it as an existential threat to Tel Aviv, the chief of Israel's intelligence agency has warned that Iran is capable of developing and launching its first nuclear weapon by 2014.

"Launching a bomb these days is no problem, technically speaking," Meir Dagan, chief of Mossad, told members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee today.

"If the project has no technical glitches, and if Iran's programme does not malfunction in any way, they will have a bomb to launch by 2014," he stressed.

The head of the Israeli secret service which has generated awe in many parts of the world for some of their daring missions also emphasised on foiling Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"This is a significant existential threat for the State of Israel. We must distance this threat," he told the influential Knesset committee.

Commenting on the ongoing violence in Iran following presidential polls, Dagan called it "an argument between Iran's elite".

"This is an internal matter, not external," he said on a terse note.