"International authorities, particularly in the West, who want to avoid direct involvement with Iran, are anxious to spread the story that we will strike Iran," Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told Israel Radio today in response to such reports in the British media.

"Those who do not want to work politically, diplomatically and economically are diverting attention to the operation that we are said to be conducting," Sneh said. The international community should focus on imposing economic sanctions on Iran for defying UN Security Council resolutions, he added.

British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, had earlier reported that Israel is negotiating with the US over permission for an "air corridor" over Iraq to carry out an air strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if it becomes necessary.

The report cited an unnamed senior Israeli defence official as saying that talks are currently underway between the two countries over the possibility that Jerusalem decides to take unilateral action to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

"We are planning for every eventuality, and sorting out issues such as these are crucially important," the official was quoted as saying.

"The only way to do this is to fly through US controlled air space. If we don't sort these issues out now we could have a situation where American and Israeli war planes start shooting at each other," he reportedly said.