Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert heads to Europe next week to meet the new leaders of France and Britain for the first time and press his campaign against arch foe Iran's nuclear drive.
Olmert returns to Paris and London for a second time in two years, fresh from talks in Moscow Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who distanced himself from Western warnings on the atomic question while in Tehran this week.
Israel wants to shore up support on Iran and on its peace efforts with the Palestinians in the two EU countries with permanent seats on the UN Security Council that also have large Muslim and significant Jewish communities.
"Israel views with great importance that key members of the European Union are committed to the international struggle against Iran's nuclear programme," Olmert's spokesman Miri Eisin told AFP.
"We want their participation and backing in our talks with the Palestinians and the international peace meeting," she said. Israel and the Palestinians are locked in talks to outline what they hope will be an historic peace deal in the run-up to the planned meeting in the United States later this year.
Olmert travels first to Paris on Monday for talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy, followed by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and leaders of France's Jewish community, Europe's largest.
On Tuesday, Olmert heads to London to meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took office in June. Israel and the West fear Iran's nuclear programme is a cover for developing an atomic weapon, a charge that Tehran vehemently denies.
Widely considered the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, Israel considers Iran its chief enemy after repeated statements from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Jewish state should be wiped off the map. "The prime minister certainly supports raising the level of diplomatic and economic sanctions against Iran," an Israeli government official said.