A senior Iranian official said Friday it is shameful for the world to turn a blind eye to remarks made by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, interpreted by some as an admission that Israel has nuclear weapons.

"This week the prime minister of Israel has announced that they are possessing nuclear weapons ... and now you see the officials, the governments of the whole world, the Europeans, are not talking, they're silent," said Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, the chief Iranian representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency. "This is very shameful. Very, very shameful."

To make his point, Soltanieh recalled how on the final day of an IAEA meeting in September, the United States and Europeans - including France, Germany and Britain - blocked a vote on a resolution labeling Israel's nuclear capabilities a threat.

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"What they hell they are doing? They even stopped and opposed a resolution that it is a concern of (the) international community that Israel has a nuclear capability," Soltanieh said during a question and answer session at a public event sponsored by the Austrian Institute for International Affairs.

Iran's foreign minister said earlier Friday that a Olmert's comments were a sign of Israel's weakness.

"Their prime minister has announced they have got nuclear arms," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters on a visit to the Kazakh capital Astana. "It does not show their strength. It shows their weakness. They are afraid."

"The international community should react to this in an appropriate way," he said. Iran on Wednesday called for United Nations Security Council action against Israel.

In a German TV interview aired Monday, Olmert said: "Iran, openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear
weapons, as America, France, Israel, Russia?"

Olmert aides said the remarks did not constitute an admission that Israel had atomic weapons.

The comments generated a storm of controversy in Israel and abroad, with leading opposition lawmakers in Israel accusing Olmert of undermining Israel's campaign to curb Iran's atomic ambitions.

Independent analysts believe Israel has built between 80 and 200 nuclear warheads since the late 1960s. Israel refuses to discuss the matter, under an "ambiguity" policy aimed both at deterring regional foes and avoiding an arms race.

Meanwhile, Mottaki also said Friday that any United Nations Security Council resolution to pressure Iran over its nuclear program would be illegal, news reports said.

"The referral of our dossier to the U.N. Security Council is an illegal
political move," Mottaki was quoted as saying by the Russian Interfax news agency in Astana.

The Security Council could vote next week on whether to impose sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a process that can create fuel for power generation or the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

Mottaki said Iran is continuing its uranium enrichment program under the
observation of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"You know that our [nuclear] facilities are regularly visited by IAEA
inspectors," he was quoted as saying.

Iran says its program is intended only to generate power, but the U.S., its European allies and Israel fear Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.