German-Israeli Talks

"Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the region. That is our policy and it has not changed," Olmert told a press conference after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"There is no need to explain it any further."

The Israeli prime minister sparked an uproar on Monday when he made remarks in an interview with a German television station that were interpreted by some as a break with Israel's traditional nuclear "policy of ambiguity."

"Iran openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map," Olmert told N24 television. "Can you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as France, America, Russia and Israel?"

The apparent blunder -- coming less than a week after Israeli officials rounded on the incoming US defense secretary Robert Gates for the same slip-up -- sparked outrage in Israel, with lawmakers from across the political spectrum calling on the premier to resign.

Reviving the peace process

Merkel and Olmert expressed concern at Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is peaceful but which the West fears is geared toward making an atomic bomb.

The two leaders supported UN efforts to impose sanctions on Iran, but the chancellor ruled out a military strike against Tehran, saying it was "not on the table."

Merkel said Germany hoped to revive the flagging Mideast peace process when it takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union on Jan. 1.

Olmert welcomed German efforts towards this end but said the "basis" for such efforts should be the so-called roadmap peace plan and the Mideast Quartet comprising the US, the UN, the EU and Russia.

The Israeli leader said that his government was making extraordinary efforts to push ahead with a dialogue with the Palestinians.

Disagreements on Syria?

The two leaders did not go into their differences over whether to involve Syria in the Mideast peace process, after Olmert criticized a visit paid to Damascus last week by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Merkel said the trip was useful to obtain a first-hand view of the situation, but the signals that Steinmeier brought back with him were "anything but positive."

Merkel told a news conference ahead of the talks there could be no peace in the Middle East without Syrian involvement.

Recognizing the threats

On the first full day of his trip to Germany, Olmert laid a wreath at a Berlin train station from which 50,000 Jews were herded onto trains heading for the Nazis' death camps during World War II.

In a somber speech at the Grünewald station, Olmert said "those who do not recognize the threats weighing on them are doomed."

Merkel and Olmert laid the ground for Tuesday's talks by holding three hours of informal discussions after he arrived on Monday.

Holocaust denial

The German chancellor joined the Israeli prime minister in condemning the denial of the Holocaust by revisionist historians at a conference in Iran.

"We reject in the strongest terms conferences held in Iran on the supposed non-existence of the Holocaust," Merkel told reporters

"Germany will never accept this and will use all possibilities at its disposal to oppose it."

Olmert said the conference demonstrated the "unacceptable character" of the Iranian government and the "danger" for the West that Iran represents.

Iran pressed on with its conference where several Western "scholars" cast doubt on whether the mass slaughter of six million Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II took place.

Olmet is due to confer with German President Horst Köhler before traveling on to Italy on Wednesday where a meeting with Prime Minister Romano Prodi and a Vatican audience with Pope Benedict XVI will be on the agenda.