POTSDAM (AFP)---Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight most industrialised nations have condemned the Iranian government’s threats against Israel and denial of the Holocaust.

"We condemn the Iranian government’s threats against Israel and the repeated denial of the Holocaust by members of the Iranian government," the ministers said in a joint statement issued on Wednesday.

They also said they were prepared to back "appropriate measures" if Iran failed to stop uranium enrichment.

"We deeply regret that Iran, as seen in the latest report by the director general of the IAEA to the UN Security Council, has further expanded its enrichment activities.”

"If Iran continues to refuse to heed the call of the Security Council, we will support further appropriate measures, as agreed in Resolution 1747," they said, referring to a measure passed in March tightening sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear programme.

The ministers said they were "deeply concerned" by Iran’s nuclear activities and expressed their "shared duty" to find a solution to the conflict with Tehran.

Mohammed ElBaradei, chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said last week that Iran is between three to eight years away from getting nuclear weapons. He made the statement at a conference in Luxembourg.

They called on Tehran to play a "responsible and constructive role" in the Middle East, particularly in bringing about a two-state solution for the Palestinians and Israel and stability in Iraq.

The G8 meeting was aimed at preparing for next week’s summit hosted by the G8 current president, Germany, in Heiligendamm on the Baltic coast.

The leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States will attend the summit.

Russia has previously resisted urging from the West,which suspects Iran of harbouring a covert nuclear weapons program, to increase pressure on Tehran to open its civilian nuclear programme to closer scrutiny.

But Russia’s close cooperation with Iran’s civilian nuclear programme has weakened in recent months amid a financing spat that has delayed Russia’s construction of Iran’s first nuclear power station.