Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel cannot rely on any other country, even an ally, when it comes to facing up to the perceived nuclear threat from Iran.

"We appreciate the efforts of the international community to halt Iran's nuclear programme," Netanyahu said in a speech on the eve of Holocaust Day.

"But at no stage will we abandon our fate into the hands of other countries, even our best friends," he said, in an apparent reference to the United States whose Secretary of State John Kerry flew in to Israel on Sunday.

US President Barack Obama warned last month during his own visit to Israel that a nuclear Iran could never be contained and pose a danger to the entire world, reiterating he would not rule out military action.

Iran denies charges of developing the atomic bomb and insists its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.

"What has changed since the Shoah (Holocaust) is our determination and our capacity to defend ourselves with our own means," said the Israeli premier, who charged that Iran openly proclaimed an ambition to annihilate the Jewish state.

"The murderous hatred of the Jewish people has not disappeared from the world. It has changed face and become a murderous hatred of the state of Israel," he said at the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

President Shimon Peres, at the same ceremony, said anti-Semitism was still alive in Europe. "Crises are again being exploited to create new Nazi parties, ridiculous but dangerous," he said.

Iran calls for calm in North Korea showdown
Tehran (AFP) April 7, 2013 - Iran's foreign ministry on Sunday urged against "provocative conduct" in the Korean peninsula, saying stability there has been compromised by an American military build-up, media reported.

"Our advice to all sides involved is to not stoke tensions by engaging in provocative conduct," ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in remarks reported by the Mehr news agency.

"The climate should not remain one of threats," he said.

Mehmanparast accused arch-foe United States of provoking the crisis.

"The military build-up and provocative acts... by a country situated thousands of kilometres (miles) away is destabilising this region," he said referring to the United States.

He said, "the actions of all sides could spin out of control and damage the whole region."

Tensions in the peninsula have flared with Pyongyang issuing a series of apocalyptic threats of nuclear war and warning that the safety of foreign diplomats there could not be guaranteed after April 10 if a conflict broke out.

Exasperated by fresh UN sanctions following its nuclear and missile tests and by South Korean-US military drills, North Korea has also reportedly loaded two intermediate-range missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them in underground facilities near its east coast.

Mehmanparast's remarks came two days after an Iranian military commander said the North had no choice but to "confront" the United States.

"Tensions in the region are due to excessive demands by the United States... and its tightening of the noose on North Korea," armed forces deputy chief Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri said on Friday.

As a result, "North Korean authorities are left with no choice but to confront the actions of the United States," Jazayeri said.

Pyongyang and Tehran have enjoyed good ties since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Both are under UN Security Council sanctions for their ballistic missile and nuclear programmes.

A 2011 UN sanctions report said Tehran and Pyongyang were suspected of sharing ballistic missile technology.