BERLIN/BRUSSELS, 29 April 2007 — Iran’s nuclear program could be severely hit by firing 1,000 cruise missiles in a 10-day attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quoted as saying yesterday.

Asked in an interview with Germany’s Focus magazine whether military action would be an option if Iran continued to defy the United Nations, Olmert said: “Nobody is ruling it out.”

“It is impossible perhaps to destroy the entire nuclear program but it would be possible to damage it in such a way that it would be set back years,” Olmert said. “It would take 10 days and would involve the firing of 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles.”

Iran says it is developing nuclear technology for power generation, but the West fears it is trying to build a bomb and two sets of UN sanctions have been imposed on Tehran.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged Washington on Friday to speak directly to Iran over its nuclear program and said he was sure Tehran was ready for such talks.

“We have to see how far the US is willing to engage. I think at this point in time, to have also the US opening a channel of communication with Iran will be worth thinking about,” he said in a public discussion at a Brussels Forum on trans-Atlantic relations.

Focus quoted Olmert as saying UN sanctions should be given a chance to work before military action was considered. “We must give the (UN) process time to take effect,” he said. “We have no intention of attacking Iran at the moment.” Olmert said he doubted whether Iran’s nuclear program was as far advanced as Tehran said.

“I don’t think that Iran is about to cross the nuclear technology threshold as its leaders claim,” he said. “We still have time to stop them.” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has proclaimed Iran’s ability to enrich on an “industrial scale,” but UN inspectors say it remains at test level.

Iran would face further sanctions if it has not stopped enrichment by a new Security Council deadline of May 24.

“It is very difficult to continue in a situation where Iran is considered a country with whom you cannot organize some sort of dialogue. I think that would be good. I am going to be talking to Washington in the next few days about that,” Solana said.

He was speaking after two days of talks with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, who he said was close to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Asked if he believed Khamenei was ready to allow talks with the United States, Solana answered, “I say without any hesitation, yes.” Solana said he would discuss the matter with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday.

US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, who was in the audience, said Solana and Rice had already had a long conversation on the matter Thursday so “they are in very close touch about this.”