Israel and Germany say united against nuclear Iran

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel and Germany are united in their concern over Iran's nuclear ambitions and both support the need to stop its enrichment of uranium, leaders of the two countries said on Monday.

"We regard with grave concern, in a very similar way, the continuation of Iran's steps to develop nuclear armament," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at a joint news conference in Jerusalem with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"We are also joined in our acknowledgement that there is a need to continue to conduct a series of steps that will bring this development process to a halt," Olmert said.

Speaking after Olmert, Merkel said "the threats that (Israel) is seeing -- we also consider them threats against us".

"We agree that we must do all we can to put as much pressure as possible on Iran, through Security Council measures and also through talks within the European Union," said Merkel, who began a three-day visit on Sunday to mark Israel's 60th anniversary.

"Germany is counting on a diplomatic solution. We're counting on a solution in which as many (countries) as possible are included," she said. "Iran must show that it is not working on a nuclear program."

Oil-rich Iran, one of Israel's most bitter enemies, denies it is seeking atomic arms and says it is pursuing its nuclear program for power generation.

Iran's president has threatened to wipe Israel off the map, and Olmert has described Tehran's nuclear program as a threat to the existence of the Jewish state.

Israel, which is thought to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, believes Iran could have a nuclear bomb by 2010.

Olmert has previously said Israel would consider "all options" to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, but Israeli leaders have stopped short of any direct threat of military action against the Islamic Republic.

Merkel, 53, Germany's first chancellor to be born after World War Two, visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum on Monday and laid a wreath at the Hall of Remembrance to the 6 million Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust.

On Tuesday, she will become the first German chancellor to address the 120-member Knesset, or parliament. One legislator has threatened to walk out because Merkel will be speaking in German, a language he said has no place in the assembly.

(Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Matthew Jones)