The President of Iran , Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, delivers a speech on 15 September 2006 during Non-Aligned Movement summit in Havana. Iran drew strong backing in the tense dispute over its nuclear program, as developing-country leaders insisted it had the right to use atomic energy. -Xinhua/AFP

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said yesterday that Iran is just "a few months" from being able to enrich uranium, a key step to producing a nuclear bomb.

"The crucial moment is not the day of the bomb. The crucial moment is the day in which Iran will master the enrichment, the knowledge of enrichment," Livni said on CNN's "Late Edition."

Iranians "are trying to send a message that it's too late" for the international community to stop their nuclear program, Livni said, noting that the world "cannot afford" for Iran to have nuclear weapons.

"It's not only a threat to Israel," she said. "The recent understanding, also, of moderate Arab states is that Iran is a threat to the region."

Washington has been pushing for sanctions to force Tehran to stop producing enriched uranium, which can be used for both nuclear power and atomic weapons.

The UN Security Council demands that Iran suspend its nuclear activities by Aug. 31. In its Resolution 1696 adopted in July, the Security Council for the first time makes legally binding demands on Iran and a threat of sanctions.

Iran refuses to suspend its uranium enrichment, saying the work is only to make fuel for electricity generation.