JERUSALEM - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday that Iran had probably restarted its nuclear weapons programme, contradicting a U.S. intelligence report which said it was frozen in 2003 and remained on hold.

"It seems Iran in 2003 halted for a certain period of time its military nuclear programme but as far as we know it has probably since renewed it," Barak told Israel's Army Radio.

On Monday, a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report released in Washington contradicted the U.S. government's earlier assertion that Tehran was intent on developing a bomb.

Barak said such reports were "made in an environment of high uncertainty".

The report could undermine U.S. efforts to convince other world powers to agree on a third package of U.N. sanctions against Iran for defying demands to halt uranium enrichment activities.

Israel has said that an Iranian nuclear weapon would pose a threat to the existence of the Jewish state. It has been concerned by statements from Iran's president that Israel should be "wiped off the map".

Israel is widely believed to have the only atomic arsenal in the Middle East, although it has never confirmed or denied that.