Even if Iran obtains nuclear weapons it will not use them against Israel or other countries in the Middle East, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told the Haaretz newspaper on Thursday.

The views expressed in the interview with the Israeli daily appear to put the defence minister at odds with many in the Israeli military and political establishment, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Iran will not drop a nuclear bomb on Israel, "not on us, not on any other neighbour," Barak told Haaretz. "I don't think in terms of panic," he added.

Israeli politicians including Netanyahu have regularly raised the spectre of a nuclear attack by Iran to call for international pressure to halt the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.

Tehran insists the programme is solely for civil nuclear power and medical purposes, but Israel and many Western governments fear it masks a weapons drive.