Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gestures as he speaks during a business conference in Tel Aviv. Olmert appeared to list his country for the first time among states which have the nuclear bomb, before his official spokesman issued a denial. [AFP]

Berlin - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared to list his country for the first time among states which have the nuclear bomb, before his official spokeswoman issued a denial.

"We never threatened any nation with annihilation," Olmert said on German television station N24 Sat1.

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"Iran openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as France, America, Russia and Israel?" he asked.

Miri Eisin, the premier's spokeswoman, said that Olmert who on Monday started a visit to Berlin had not meant to list the Jewish state among countries with nuclear weapons.

"Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the region," she said, using the country's standard phrase at the heart of its longstanding "policy of ambiguity" on whether it has the bomb.

Olmert's comments caused an uproar on the political scene back home.

Right-wing opposition Likud MP Yuval Steinitz called for the prime minister to resign after having made "an irresponsible slip which puts into question a policy that dates back almost half a century".

Leftist MP Yossi Beilin said "the staggering comments of Ehud Olmert only serve to reinforce the doubts on his capacity to remain prime minister".

Israel's former ambassador to Washington on Saturday criticised as "lamentable" an apparent public disclosure by US defence secretary-designate Robert Gates that the Jewish state was a "nuclear power".

"These are lamentable words," Danny Ayalon said on Israeli television.

"It is not up to Washington to end the policy of ambiguity" on Israel's nuclear capabilities, he said, referring to the fact that his country has never confirmed whether it has nuclear weapons.

Gates told the Senate armed forces committee last week that Iran was "surrounded by nuclear powers, with Pakistan to the east, Russia to the North, Israel to the west".

Israel is believed to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, with experts saying it has some 200 nuclear missiles.

After Gates's comments, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres, considered the father of his country's nuclear programme, said Israel would remain mum on whether it has atomic weapons.

"Israel will not say or not say whether we have nuclear weapons," he told public radio. "It suffices that one fears that we have them and that fear in itself constitutes an element of dissuasion."

"Israel is the only country threatened with destruction. Israel does not threaten any other state," Peres said.