Israel says nuclear talks with Iran 'have achieved nothing'

International nuclear talks with Iran have achieved nothing, a senior Israeli official said, suggesting that some Western nations were happy to see the negotiations drag on.

Israel, which has threatened to go to war to prevent its arch-foe going nuclear, has fretted on the sidelines as six world powers press for a curb on Iranian uranium enrichment.Breaking Israel's official silence on the second round of talks, held in Baghdad last week, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said they had only produced "more Iranian time-buying".

"(There was) no significant achievement except for the Iranians having been given another three weeks or so to pursue the nuclear project until the next meeting in Moscow," he told Israel's Army Radio in an interview.

"To my regret, I don't see any sense of urgency, and perhaps it is even in the interest of some players in the West to stretch out the time, which would certainly square with the Iranian interest."

Yaalon, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightist Likud party, would not elaborate. In January, he accused US President Barack Obama of diluting anti-Iran sanctions for fear of a spike in fuel prices that would sap his bid to win another White House term in November.

Like Israel, Washington says armed force could be a last option against the Iranians, who deny seeking the bomb and have vowed to fight back on several fronts if attacked.

Loath to see a new war in the Muslim world, the Obama administration has sought to reassure the Netanyahu government that discussions have not yet been exhausted.