"We call for application against Israel of Chapter VII, that is to say, the imposition of sanctions," Secretary General Abderrahman al-Attiya said in Kuwait, on the sidelines of a conference on cooperation between the GCC and NATO.

Attiya called on the United States not to apply a policy of "double standards" and to "work for the application (against Israel) of the resolutions of international legitimacy and of Chapter VII."

Chapter VII deals with action the UN Security Council might take regarding threats to the peace, breaches of the peace and acts of aggression.

As a first step, it says the council may call for member states to impose sanctions, including complete or partial interruption of economic relations and the severance of diplomatic relations.

If those measures are deemed to have failed, military action can be called for.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sparked an uproar after an apparent slip of the tongue in which he for the first time listed Israel as a nuclear power.

Israel, widely considered the Middle East's sole nuclear power, has for decades refused to admit or deny whether it has the atomic bomb.

But on Monday, Olmert appeared to break the taboo in an interview with a German television station as he began a visit to Berlin.

"We never threatened any nation with annihilation," Olmert said.

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

Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin was quick to deny that Olmert had admitted to Israel having nuclear weapons, saying "Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the region."

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