Obama calls Israeli PM on Iran n-talks

US President Barack Obama called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday to discuss ongoing negotiations on Iran's controversial nuclear programme, the White House said.

Obama updated Netanyahu on the negotiations between major world powers and Iran in Geneva and underscored his strong commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which is the aim of the ongoing negotiations, reported Xinhua citing the White House in a statement.

"The president and prime minister agreed to continue to stay in touch on this issue," it added.

Delegates of the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, known as the P5+1 group, are negotiating with Iran in a new round of nuclear talks in Geneva, Switzerland. They are considering easing limited sanctions on Iran in exchange for concrete steps to halt nuclear activities.

Speaking at a meeting with US congressmen in Jerusalem Thursday evening, Netanyahu said that accepting such a deal with Iran will be "a mistake of historic proportions".

"This is the deal of the century for Iran," because Tehran does not forfeit anything, Netanyahu said. In the best case scenario, " Iran will stop enriching uranium for a few days, but the entire momentum of the international sanctions will be lost," he said.

Accusing Tehran of seeking to build atomic weapons, Israel has repeatedly warned that it might strike Iran if it did not halt its nuclear programme.

Iran insists that its nuclear facilities are geared only to civilian needs.