New York  - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called Wednesday for tough UN sanctions to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Barak met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at United Nations headquarters in New York, saying that economic sanctions would hurt Iran's nuclear programmes. Iran has said that its uranium enrichment programme was intended for peaceful, civilian nuclear energy and not for weapons.

"We believe that no options should be removed in this regard from the table," Barak told reporters.

Talks conducted by the UN Security Council's five permanent members - the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China - plus Germany have been underway to convince Iran to suspend its nuclear activities. The Security Council has threatened to impose sanctions if Iran refuses to meet its demands. (dpa)