BERLIN - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called for more dramatic measures to be taken against Iran and declined to rule out a military attack against Tehran in an interview released Saturday with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine.

His statements were released the day Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced an expansion of his country's uranium enrichment activities, in defiance of an imminent United Nations move to sanction Tehran.

When asked if he would not rule out a military strike against Tehran, Olmert replied: "I rule nothing out."

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Olmert criticized the international community's hesitation in dealing with Ahmadinejad. According to the premier, the West fears Iran's nuclear program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons but Tehran denies this.

"I am anything but happy," Olmert was quoted as saying in an interview released ahead of publication on Sunday.

"I expect significantly more dramatic steps to be taken. Here is a leader who says openly that it is his aim to wipe Israel off the map. Israel is a member of the United Nations."

"That someone says such a thing these days is absolutely criminal," he told the German magazine.

Olmert repeated he was prepared to withdraw from the majority of settlements in the West Bank.

"A prime minister should not make promises that he cannot keep but my message is clear: I am prepared to give up regions. That means that I am ready to evacuate territories. You know how hard this is," he told Der Spiegel.

"And we are ready to do this in such a way that would allow the Palestinians in the West Bank to have a contiguous state. I am not making any conditions which would not be made by the international community."

Olmert is due to visit Germany on Tuesday and will hold a joint press conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

As European nations presented a restrained proposal for sanctioning Iran over its nuclear program, Ahmadinejad on Saturday said that his country has expanded its uranium enrichment program at a plant in central Iran.

"We have started installing 3,000 centrifuges," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.

"This is the first step toward industrial production. We will be able to produce our nuclear fuel once we install 60,000 centrifuges," he said. Centrifuges spin uranium gas into enriched material to produce nuclear fuel.

European states offer revised sanctions against Tehran
In a fresh bid to win Russian and Chinese support, key European nations circulated a revised UN resolution Friday narrowing sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment and urging negotiations to resolve the standoff over its nuclear ambitions.

The new draft still would ban the supply of materials and technology that could contribute to Iran's nuclear and missile programs but it spells out in much greater detail exactly what items are prohibited. The Russians and Chinese had complained that the proposed sanctions in the original draft were too broad.

The new draft keeps a travel ban and asset freeze on companies, individuals and organizations involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programs, despite Russian opposition.

Britain, France and Germany - who have led negotiations for several years trying to rein in Iran's nuclear program - have been at odds with Russia and China for weeks over the scope of sanctions. The United States has generally supported the Europeans, though it initially wanted a tougher text.

Russia proposed major changes to the original European text that would limit sanctions solely to measures that would keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and eliminate any travel ban, asset freeze, or mention of the nuclear facility being built by the Russians at Bushehr, Iran.

The new European draft drops all mention of Bushehr, which is projected to go on line in late 2007 and would be Iran's first atomic power plant, and it refers simply to missiles - not ballistic missiles which Russia objected to. But it keeps a range of sanctions and would still limit technical assistance to Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency and urge countries to prevent Iranian students from studying nuclear-related disciplines.

The goal, according to the new draft, is "a long-term comprehensive
arrangement which would allow for the development of relations and cooperation with Iran based on mutual respect and the establishment of international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program."

The European draft makes clear, however, that Iran must "without further delay suspend proliferation sensitive nuclear activities" - specifically all enrichment and reprocessing including research and development, and
construction of a research reactor moderated by heavy water.

It also increases pressure on Iran to fulfill requirements set by the IAEA board and would expand the powers of the UN nuclear watchdog agency to monitor Iran's nuclear program, which diplomats said Russia views as a
"provocation" to Iran.