Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Saturday that Israel has no aggressive intentions towards Iran, and cautioned against any pre-emptive strike on the Islamic Republic.

Peres also said Israel should regard Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as it would Hitler, and urged the formation of a global coalition against Iran.

"We must never consider such a thing," Peres told Channel Two television when asked if he would support an independent Israeli military strike against Iran if other nations failed to curb its uranium enrichment program.

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"Israel has never shown aggressive intentions (towards Iran) - it has none. I don't think we have to, or can, deal with this issue," he said, cautioning that Israel could face international isolation if it attacked Iran.

Israel has said repeatedly it wants the United States and other countries to take the lead in dealing with Iran over a nuclear program that has raised international concern that it could build atomic weapons.

Iran this month rejected demands that it suspend uranium enrichment, prompting United Nations Security Council to consider sanctions. It says it wants nuclear power only to generate electricity.

The issue was high on the agenda of talks Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held this week in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country, a UN Security Council member with veto power, has been reluctant to support sanctions.

"The Iranians should be afraid - they must understand if they object to every compromise there will be a price to pay," Olmert, who has said a nuclear Iran would pose a threat to Israel's existence, told reporters on Thursday.

He did not elaborate. But his comments were described in the Israeli media as the strongest warning yet by an Israeli leader to Iran that Israel might consider a pre-emptive strike to try to ensure Tehran cannot build an atomic bomb.

Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981, an attack that Peres, then leader of the opposition Labour Party, opposed as diplomatically damaging.

Peres also condemned what he called the world's silence in the face of Ahmadinejad's threats against Israel.

"(Ahmadinejad) is the only (leader) calling for genocide: a member of the United Nations threatening to destroy another member of the United Nations. And ... a large part of the world is silent," Peres said.

Ahmadinejad on Friday called Israel's leaders a "group of terrorists" and threatened any country that supports Israel.

"You imposed a group of terrorists ... on the region," he said, addressing the U.S. and its allies. "It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals ... This is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow."

Ahmadinejad warned Europe it was stirring up hatred in the Middle East by supporting Israel and said it "may get hurt" if anger in the region boils over.

"You should believe that this regime [Israel] cannot last and has no more benefit to you. What benefit have you got in supporting this regime, except the hatred of the nations?" he said in a speech to mark Al-Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, when Iranians are officially encouraged to demonstrate in support of Muslim rule of the city.

"We have advised the Europeans that the Americans are far away, but you are the neighbors of the nations in this region. We inform you that the nations are like an ocean that is welling up, and if a storm begins, the dimensions will not stay limited to Palestine, and you may get hurt," he said. The remarks were broadcast on state radio.

The United Kingdom and France condemned Ahmadinejad's remarks Friday.

"Unfortunately these remarks do not come as a surprise," said a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "They are consistent with what Mr. Ahmadinejad has said for some time..."

"It's why we take the issue of Iran in general so seriously and the possibility of it acquiring nuclear weaponry so seriously and why the prime minister believes the world must be as united in its message to Iran as it has been in its message to North Korea," he added. "That is why we will continue to push for and work towards a UN resolution [on sanctions against Iran]."

"I condemn the unacceptable comments made today by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in which he again calls into question the existence of the state of Israel," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said in a statement.

Ahmadinejad caused outrage in the West last year by calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map," echoing comments by the Islamic Republic's late founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

He has not since repeated that phrase, but regularly launches verbal attacks on Israel, whose right to exist Iran has not recognized since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"Today, with the grace of God, the efforts to establish this fake regime have failed totally," Ahmadinejad said.

Although Ahmadinejad has called for Israel's destruction, he said in August Iran was not a threat to any country "not even to the Zionist regime" - a term Iranian officials use for Israel.

State television showed crowds in Iranian towns and cities on Friday waving banners with pictures of Khomeini, and Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Iran described Israel's war with Lebanon in the summer as a victory for Hezbollah.

"The false myth [of Israel being invincible] has fallen by the will of the Palestinian youth and the faithful warriors of Hezbollah," Ahmadinejad said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in May that Iran's leaders had turned Israel "into a target for annihilation."