Netanyahu said Ahmadinejad was a threat not just to Jews but to Iranians, surrounding Muslim states and the wider world and needed to be stopped before he acquired the nuclear bombs to carry out his "mad conception".

The former Israeli prime minister was in London as part of efforts to raise global support to indict Ahmadinejad for inciting genocide in violation of international law.

Ahmadinejad has stated his goal is to wipe Israel off the map and the United States believes he harbours plans to develop a nuclear arsenal.

Israeli opposition leader Netanyahu said Ahmadinejad had violated a 1948 convention outlawing the incitement to commit genocide.

"While he is denying the Holocaust, he is preparing a new holocaust," he told reporters in Portcullis House, part of the offices of the Houses of Parliament.

He said he did not have illusions of Ahmadinejad turning up in the International Criminal Court but said the move was part of what should be a string of measures "to create a tide of moral and political opposition".

The right-wing Likud party leader said engaging Tehran in talks "when you should be squeezing them would be a mistake" and often compared the Iranian regime to Nazi Germany.

Citing estimates from Israel's domestic intelligence agency Mossad, he said Iran could acquire a nuclear bomb within three years.

"We have 1,000 days -- and this day has just gone," he said.

Netanyahu left the door open for Israel to take unilateral action against Iran, but only after diplomacy and eventual economic sanctions are given "a chance."

"I think those have to be tried before stiffer action is required," he said.

But he dismissed a January 7 report in The Sunday Times newspaper here saying Israel had drawn up plans to destroy Iranian uranium enrichment facilities with a tactical nuclear strike.

"This is false. I can categorically say Israel does not plan any kind of pre-emptive attacks using nuclear weapons," he said.

"It has nothing to do with reality. We are concerned with our own defence but we are a responsible country."

The document making the case for Ahmadinejad's referral on incitement to genocide charges says it "seeks to generate public, legal and diplomatic action pertaining to Iran's violations of the requisites for United Nations membership and the central role of the Iranian president in incitement to genocide."

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