FollowingUS Mideast envoy George Mitchell's apparent failure Friday to lurePalestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas back to peace talks, VicePremier Silvan Shalom said the Palestinians had come up with "aninvention of their own" in not agreeing to negotiations but demandingconcessions - which, he stressed, Israel would make no more of.

Speakingto Israel Radio on Sunday morning, Shalom added that the Palestiniansknew that they would also be ultimately required to make concessionsand were using the US as pressure for preconditions.

"The time has come to clearly state that there will not be anymore concessions for the resumption of negotiations," he said, addingthat the ball was now firmly in the Palestinian court.

Concerning the Iranian nuclear threat, Shalom said that Israel could not tolerate a nuclear Iran.

"Israelwas established to protect the Jewish people so that there would neverbe another Holocaust," he said. "And when Iran states clearly thatIsrael should be wiped off the map, and is developing weapons that willbe able to do this, Israel cannot just sit back."

Shalom said US President Barack Obama understood that after ayear, the carrot method was not working with the Islamic republic. Hesaid Washington realized that Teheran's nuclear arms pursuit posed adanger to the entire world and that the road had been paved forsanctions.