US Vice President Dick Cheney has promised that the White House would do its utmost to counter Iran's 'nuclear threat against Israel'.

"Iran's only intentions of developing ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads are to destroy Israel and threaten the entire world," claimed Israeli president Shimon Peres in a meeting with Cheney on Sunday.

Peres did not provide any information on what he meant by Iran's 'nuclear warheads'.

He also demanded that the US administration bring peace to Israel before President George W. Bush leaves office.

Cheney, however, said Washington was not ignoring Iran's ballistic missile developments and would do everything in its power to deal with what they both referred to as 'the Iranian threat', according to the Jerusalem Post.

Cheney later met with Israeli opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu, who also encouraged the 67-year-old vice president to take action against Iran, warning that all options must remain on the table.

MD/AA