PARIS, Dec 12: French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned of a risk of a war with Iran if Israel considered its security seriously threatened by Tehran’s nuclear drive in a magazine interview to be published on Thursday.

Sarkozy also said he was ready to travel to Tehran to discuss a civilian nuclear partnership if the country steps up its cooperation with the UN atomic watchdog.

“The problem for us is not so much the risk that the Americans launch a military intervention, but that the Israelis consider their security to be truly threatened,” Sarkozy told Le Nouvel Observateur.

“Everyone agrees on the fact that what the Iranians are doing has no civilian explanation,” Sarkozy said, referring to Tehran’s uranium enrichment work. “The only debate is about whether they will develop a military capacity in one or five years.

“The danger of a war exists,” said the French president, who insisted he had “never been in favour of war.” Sarkozy held out the prospect of a nuclear partnership with Tehran if it improved its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying he had the “trust of the Israelis and the Americans” on the matter.

“If Iran allows the IAEA to carry out its checks, I would be ready to travel to Tehran to discuss a collaboration on civilian nuclear energy,” he said.

The Vienna-based watchdog said last month that Iran had taken important steps in revealing the extent of its nuclear programme but was still defying UN demands that it suspend uranium enrichment.

An IAEA delegation arrived in Tehran on Sunday to tackle outstanding questions over its nuclear programme.

The United States and other western powers want Iran to suspend enrichment completely, suspecting it of seeking to develop a nuclear bomb — a charge denied by Iran.

US President George Bush said Iran was “dangerous”, despite the publication last week of a US intelligence report saying Iran had suspended a secret nuclear weapons programme in 2003.—AFP