Updated on Saturday, February 24, 2007, 00:00 IST

London, Feb 24: Israel has sought permission from the United States to fly its jets over the Iraqi airspace to conduct strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities, a media report said Saturday.

To conduct surgical air strikes against Iran's nuclear programme, Israeli war planes would need to fly across Iraq. But to do so the Israeli military authorities in Tel Aviv need permission from the pentagon, 'the daily telegraph' revealed.

Negotiations were now underway between the two countries for the US-led coalition in Iraq to provide an "air corridor" in the event of the Israeli government deciding on unilateral military action to prevent Teheran developing nuclear weapons, a senior Israeli defence official was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

"We are planning for every eventuality, and sorting out issues such as these are crucially important," said the official, who asked not to be named.

"The only way to do this is to fly through US-controlled air space. If we don't sort these issues out now we could have a situation where American and Israeli war planes start shooting at each other."

As Iran continues to defy UN demands to stop producing material which could be used to build a nuclear bomb, Israel's military establishment is moving on to a war footing, with preparations now well under way for the jewish state to launch air strikes against Teheran if diplomatic efforts fail to resolve the crisis.

Bureau Report