Report: Israeli official has stern warning for Iran

JERUSALEM (CNN) - An Israeli Cabinet member with top-flight security credentials said the Jewish state "will attack" Iran if it doesn't halt its efforts to develop nuclear weaponry, according to a report on Friday in Israel's largest mass-circulation daily.

The remark, which the newspaper Yediot Ahronot said was made by deputy prime minister Shaul Mofaz, is one of the most explicit threats made against the predominantly Shiite Islamic Republic of Iran by a member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Cabinet.

The tough rhetoric has political resonance in Israel amid talk that Mofaz has begun jockeying to replace the embattled Olmert, embroiled in a corruption probe, as the ruling Kadima Party's leader and prime minister.

At least one Cabinet member, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, has called for Olmert to step down.