Israel Saturday denied a German magazine report which quoted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's words on Iran's nuclear plant.

"An attack of 1,000 cruise missiles fired over 10 days could severely hit Iran's nuclear program," Olmert was quoted as saying by Focus, a German magazine, on Saturday.

Immediately after the article was published online by Focus, Olmert's office denied the quotes, local media reported.

Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin confirmed that the prime minister had spoken to the author of the Focus article, but she said Olmert did not make the comments that were attributed to him.

According to a report on local daily Ha'aretz, Olmert told Focus that it is perhaps impossible to destroy the entire nuclear program by the firing of 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles in 10 days.

"The prime minister did not say these things," Eisin responded.

Eisin said the meeting was not an interview and was conducted for background purposes on the understanding that it would not be used.

Ulrich Schmidla, a foreign affairs editor at Focus magazine, said he would try to contact the reporter, a regular contributor, who conducted the interview.

Olmert was also quoted by Focus as saying that Israel presently has no intention of attacking Iran, which has been imposed two sets of UN sanctions.

In a speech delivered on Thursday to a Jewish group from the United States, Olmert said that he hoped the Iran's nuclear problem could be solved through nonmilitary ways.

Iran, proclaiming its entire nuclear program developed for power generation, would face further sanctions if it has not stopped enrichment by a new Security Council deadline of May 24.

Source: Xinhua