Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his demands that Iran halt its uranium enrichment programme entirely, as International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) head Yukiya Amano embarked on nuclear inspection talks with senior officials in Tehran on Monday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said that  "Iran wants to destroy Israel and is developing nuclear weapons to that end."

Ahead of negotiations between Iran and world powers later this month in Baghdad, US Vice-President Joe Biden has said that Israel still has time to launch a military strike against the Islamic Republic.

Israeli President Shimon Peres began Tuesday the first of a four day state visit to Canada by holding a series of talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Israel's armed forces chief-of-staff does not believe Iran will take the decision to build a nuclear bomb, he told an Israeli newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday.

 "My initial impression is that Iran has been given a freebie," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after a decision by world powers to place no new restrictions on Iran before the next meeting in Baghdad about its nuclear program in late May.

This Saturday in Istanbul, Catherine Ashton, the EU Foreign Policy chief will lead the P5+1 talks with Iran over its nuclear program – more than a year after the last negotiated attempt has failed because Iran wasn’t prepared to discuss its nuclear program unless the P5+1 removing all sanctions and recognising Iran’s right to enrich uranium.

World powers and Iran will hold the next round of negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear programme on April 14 in Istanbul, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Sunday.

Nearly two-thirds of Israeli Jews believe that the consequences for the Jewish state of a nuclear-armed Iran would be worse than those of an Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic, a poll showed on Monday.

Azerbaijan has arrested 22 people on suspicion of plotting attacks on the US and Israeli embassies in Baku on behalf of neighbouring Iran, the national security ministry said Wednesday.