Iran is looking to deceive the world over its nuclear program in talks with the P5+1 group of world powers, Israel premier Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday after talks with Czech President Vaclav Klaus.

"It looks as though they see the talks as another opportunity to delay and deceive and buy time, pretty much as North Korea did for many years," he said, just days ahead of the next round of negotiations which are to take place in Baghdad on May 23.

Israel's new unity government could help move forward the stalled peace process, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a letter to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Haaretz newspaper reported on Monday.

The letter, which answers an earlier missive from Abbas about the stalled peace process, was delivered on Saturday, but so far, no details of its content have been made public.

A letter from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the stalled peace process doesn't address key issues hindering talks, the Palestine Liberation Organization said on Sunday.

Speaking after a meeting of the PLO's executive committee, secretary general Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Israeli premier's message contained no answers to the questions posed in a letter by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas last month.

The Israeli parliament approved by 71 votes to 23 an agreement between PM Netanyahu and the opposition Kadima party to form a national unity government

The Knesset on Wednesday approved by 71 votes to 23 an agreement between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the opposition Kadima party to form Israel's seventh national unity government.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to discuss the upcoming nuclear talks between world powers and Iran, an Israeli official told Agence France Presse.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and incoming vice premier and Kadima head Shaul Mofaz, who on Tuesday agreed to join the ruling Likud party in a national unity government, also attended the meeting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a surprise deal with the opposition Kadima party on Tuesday, agreeing to form a national unity government and dropping plans for a snap election.

Under terms of the agreement, Shaul Mofaz, who took over leadership of the center-right Kadima party only six weeks ago, would become deputy prime minister as well as a minister without portfolio in the new cabinet, officials said.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he will push for September 4 as the date for early elections, as he moved to have a bill passed to dissolve parliament.

"We are proposing September 4," Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting, stressing that the target was to hold elections in four months' time.

An overwhelming 48 percent of Israelis support the re-election of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a poll published Thursday ahead of an announcement on early general elections.

Netanyahu is expected to announce next week that he will be moving the vote up to September 4 this year from October 2013.

Japan's Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba has urged Israel to exercise "patience" on Iran's nuclear program and give sanctions a chance to work, his spokesman said on Wednesday.

Gemba, who arrived in Israel on Tuesday, held a phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in mourning for the passing of his father, and also met with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Israel's former security chief Yuval Diskin on Saturday accused top ministers of misleading the public about the chances any pre-emptive military action against Iran's nuclear facilities succeeding.

Diskin singled out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak for criticism over their increasingly bellicose comments in the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program.