Tel Aviv - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad represents a phenomenon similar to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, and is not being taken seriously enough by the world, Israeli President Shimon Peres said in remarks published Wednesday.

"I identify a phenomenon similar to Hitler, and the world is once again indifferent. I can't say for sure he would behave like Hitler, but the world is taking him lightly," Peres told the Ha'aretz daily in an interview to mark Israel's 60th anniversary, which begins Wednesday night.

Israel sees Iranian attempts to acquire nuclear weapons as its biggest existential threat, given Ahmadinejad's repeated statements that the Jewish state should be erased off the map.

The veteran Israeli statesman said the regarded Israel's biggest missed opportunity as the failure of a 1987 deal which would have restored the West Bank to Jordanian control.

"To this day I have no doubt it was our biggest diplomatic mistake," he says of the failure to implement the agreement he pushed for when foreign minister, and which was blocked by then-Premier Yitzhak Shamir.

"I thought the option should be Jordanian, although that, too, was not without its problems," he said.

"The question was, who would rule, (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat or (King) Hussein (of Jordan.)"

Peres, one of the architects of the ground-breaking 1993 Oslo interim peace accords, which saw Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization recognise each other for the first time, said peace talks with the Palestinians should take priority over negotiations with Syria.

"Even if we have to speak to everyone who wants to talk to us, and although the Syrian issue seems easier, the Palestinian issue comes first. Even if only because the Syrian situation is static and the Palestinian is dynamic," he said.

Israel and the Palestinian Authority resumed peace talks at the turn of the year, after a seven-year hiatus. Israel has also been holding secret contacts with Syria with a view to resuming negotiations, which broke off in early 2000 and have not yet been revived. (dpa)