US Vice President Dick Cheney recently considered having Israel launch a limited missile strike on an Iranian nuclear facility in order to elicit an Iranian military response which would in turn spark a US offensive against Iranian military and nuclear targets, according to Newsweek magazine.

The magazine cited two senior unnamed sources it said learned of the plan from Cheney's former Middle East advisor David Wurmser, who resigned his post last month.

“Cheney had been mulling the idea of pushing for limited Israeli missile strikes against the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz - and perhaps other sites - in order to provoke Tehran into lashing out,” Newsweek quoted Wurmser as saying.

Wurmser's wife, Meyrav, said the allegations were untrue.