TEL AVIV - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will spend Monday in Germany for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel that are likely to focus on efforts to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions and renew stalled Middle East peace talks.
Half a dozen cabinet colleagues will accompany Netanyahu to meetings in Berlin with German counterparts. They aim to bolster ties on topics that also include Third World aid, renewable energy and science, officials from both countries said.
On the eve of the trip, Netanyahu told his cabinet Israel attributed "great importance" to its historic ties with Germany, saying they had "a very important impact on Israel's security."
After the Holocaust, post-Nazi Germany was a major provider of aid to the new Israeli state and remains among its staunchest allies, though Berlin has been readier in recent years to join wider European criticism of Israeli policy toward Palestinians.
Netanyahu and Merkel were expected to discuss the latest efforts of six world powers, Germany among them, to impose new sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear developments, officials from both Israel and Germany said.
Israel and its allies accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian atomic programme. Iran, a major oil producer, says its aim is only to generate electricity.
Israel, assumed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, sees Iran's project as a threat to its existence, citing hostile rhetoric against the Jewish state by Iranian leaders. It has not ruled out using force if diplomatic pressure and economic sanctions fail to stop Iran's nuclear development plans.
"We've been saying that now is the time to act to upgrade sanctions" against Iran, an Israeli official told reporters in a briefing ahead of the Berlin talks.
"Ultimately Israel believes the stronger the pressure today the more likely diplomatic efforts will succeed," he said.
Netanyahu and Merkel were also likely to discuss Western efforts to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, ahead of an expected visit by U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell to the region in the coming days, the Israeli official said.
Merkel has played a role in efforts to renew negotiations stalled since Israel's offensive in Gaza a year ago. She has also criticized Jewish settlement building in the West Bank, which Palestinians say is a bar to resuming peace talks.
A German mediator has also been overseeing complicated talks for a possible deal to free an Israeli soldier held captive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip since 2006 in exchange for freeing hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
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