NEW YORK, May 2: Former United States president Ronald Reagan saved his most private and dramatic thoughts for a hand-written book -- a diary in which he writes about his running frustration with the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, his fear that an Armageddon was near when Israel attacked Iraq’s nuclear power plant, and coughing up blood on the day he was shot.

According to excerpts released on Tuesday by the Vanity Fair magazine which has the rights to his notes, Mr Reagan also reflects on the troubled relationship he had with his son Ron and his pre-occupation with Libyan leader Maummar Qaddafi.

Events in the Middle East concerned him so much that Reagan wrote on May 15, 1981: “Sometimes I wonder if we are destined to witness Armageddon.”

Then on June 7: “Got word of Israel bombing of Iraq nuclear reactor. I swear Armageddon is near.”

Reagan believed Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin “took the wrong option” and noted that “Begin informed us after the fact” but “we are not turning on Israel -- that would be an invitation for the Arabs to attack. It’s time to raise H-l.”

On Feb 6, 1982, he noted “trouble brewing in the Middle East” ahead of the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon and that, “right now, Israel has lost a lot of world sympathy.”

He said one particularly devastating bombing and artillery attack on western Beirut in August 1982 had led King Fahd of Saudi Arabia to call the White House “begging me to do something”.

“I told him I was calling PM Begin immediately. And I did -- I was angry -- I told him it had to stop or our entire future relationship was endangered. I used the word holocaust deliberately and said the symbol of war was becoming a picture of a seven-month-old baby with its arms blown off.”

The former president wrote diary entries every day of his eight years in office from 1981 to 1989 except for when he was in the hospital after being shot on March 30, 1981, about which he wrote: “Getting shot hurts.”

The full version of ‘The Reagan Diaries’ will be published on May 22 by HarperCollins, a unit of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, said a report.

Vanity Fair says that the entries, brief and to the point, offer a peek at actor-turned-politician’s views on world affairs as they happened, and how he still thought about his Hollywood days, whether lamenting the death of Fred Astaire or promising Jimmy Stewart he would look into banning the colourisation of old black-and-white movies.

Reagan took care not to spell out even mild swear words, so hell was written h--l and damn was d---.

He revealed that he wore a bullet-proof vest during a speech at the National Press Club during which he asked the Soviet Union to join the US in eliminating medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe.

“Funny -- I was talking peace but wearing a bullet-proof vest. It seems Gaddafi put a contract on me and some person named Jack was going to try for me at the speech,” Reagan wrote. “Security was very tight.”

Reagan recalled being shot as: “Suddenly there was a burst of fire from the left.” After being shoved to the floor of his car by a secret service agent, Reagan wrote, “I sat up on the edge of the seat almost paralysed by pain. Then I began coughing up blood which made both of us think -- yes, I had broken a rib and it had punctured a lung.”

The president seemed to have two running disputes, one with the Israeli government and one with his son Ron.

Ron Reagan disliked the secret service protection which his father insisted on, and the president complained his son was rude to his mother Nancy Reagan.