Israel has raised the vigilance level of its Arrow 2 anti-ballistic missile defense system for fear of possible missile attacks from Iran, local newspaper the Jerusalem Post reported on Monday.

The post quoted a senior commander of the Arrow missile battery at Palmahim Air Force Base as saying that the missile crews had been recently instructed to "raise their level of awareness" because of the latest developments on the Iranian front.

The decision of raising the vigilance level was made due to specific intelligence but did not mean general tension in the region, the report said.

The Arrow missile could intercept and destroy any Iranian missile fired at Israel, including those carrying non-conventional warheads, the report added.

Meanwhile, the command center in Palmahim Air Force base was also reinforced to prevent such possible attacks from Iran, according to the post.

Earlier this month, Tehran announced for the first time that it had successfully enriched uranium to a low level used in power plants and vowed to proceed to industrial-scale enrichment despite western pressure on it to freeze enrichment related activities.

The United States and Israel have accused Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons under a civilian front, but Iran denied the charge, saying that its nuclear program is fully peaceful.

Israeli President Moshe Katsav has described Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime as "the most hostile" since the 1979 Islamic Revolution after the hardline Ahmadinejad's call for Israel "to be wiped off the map."

Source: Xinhua