Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's abrupt withdrawal early on Friday from next week's nuclear summit in Washington has underscored Israeli reluctance to expose its own nuclear programme to scrutiny.

The invitation to attend the 47-nation summit on nuclear security hosted by US President Barack Obama posed a dilemma for Netanyahu.

Israel desperately wanted to discuss the perceived threat from Iran's nuclear drive and the risk that Islamist extremists could get hold of an atomic bomb.

At the same time, it did not want the spotlight turned on its own alleged nuclear arsenal.

"From the start, everyone said attending the conference would put him in a trap, but Netanyahu insisted," the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot newspaper said on Friday.

"The prime minister wanted to go. He is very committed to the agenda set for the conference, how to maintain nuclear safety and prevent terrorists obtaining nuclear weapons," a senior Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Netanyahu will instead send Intelligence and Atomic Energy Minister Dan Meridor.

Israel's commitment to halting nuclear proliferation in the region is evident, as is its uniquely aggressive approach -- bombing an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 and reportedly attacking what many believe to have been a nascent Syrian reactor in 2007.

Israel has threatened to strike Iran to goad the international community towards imposing further sanctions on arch-foe Tehran. Israel and the West believe Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

Israel also fears the consequences of a nuclear weapon falling into the hands of radical Islamic groups that have vowed to destroy the Jewish state.

"This is a very, very serious issue that nuclear weapons, even crude nuclear weapons, would find their way into the hands of terrorists and the consequences could be very very dire for all of humanity," Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

But in the end this commitment was overshadowed by fears that the conference would be hijacked to focus on Israel's nuclear programme.

"Recently we learned some countries were going to use it as an excuse to bash Israel" over the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Israeli official said, explaining the late-night decision to pull out.

Officials did not name the countries, but the Haaretz newspaper said it was Egypt and Turkey. Israel's ties with Turkey, its only Muslim ally, have deteriorated sharply in recent months.

Like nuclear-armed countries India, Pakistan, and North Korea, Israel is not party to the nuclear NPT in order to avoid international inspections.

Foreign military experts believe Israel has an arsenal of several hundred nuclear warheads, but Israel has never publicly acknowledged it has nuclear weapons and has maintained a policy of deliberate ambiguity since it inaugurated its Dimona nuclear reactor in 1965.

Israel has consistently insisted it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East.

In 1969, Israeli leaders undertook not to make any statement on their country's nuclear potential or carry out any nuclear test, while Washington agreed to refrain from exerting pressure on the issue.

However, some believe that Netanyahu backed out of the trip not over nuclear concerns but because of Israel's recent rift with Washington.

"It is more connected to Israel's relations with the US. It was a mistake to go to Washington last time and they learned the lesson," said Efraim Inbar, the director of the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies.

Netanyahu returned from talks with Obama last month to a wave of derision in the Israeli press, with a showdown over Jewish settlement construction in east Jerusalem unresolved amid some of the most open hostility in US-Israeli relations in years.

Netanyahu has not yet come up with a response to US demands aimed at paving the way for fresh peace talks with the Palestinians.

Even before Netanyahu's announcement, the White House had said Obama had no plans to hold talks with the Israeli leader during the nuclear meeting in light of their recent tete-a-tete behind closed doors.

"Because Israel has not answered Obama's demands, why expose him to more pressure and have Obama treat him badly again?" said Inbar.