By Allyn Fisher-Ilan

TEL AVIV, Dec 11 (Reuters) Israel's prime minister heads to Germany and Italy today where he will press for greater efforts to curtail Iran's nuclear programme and maintain a Western aid boycott of the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

Ehud Olmert's three-day visit to both countries will be his first since taking office and comes as Europe mounts a new push to revive stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will meet Olmert tomorrow, has announced plans to launch new West Asia peace efforts when Germany takes the rotating presidency of the European Union in January.

She said yesterday that positive signals coming from Israel should be used to make progress towards securing peace.

The United States, though preoccupied with the Iraq crisis, is also under pressure to revive its West Asia diplomacy after a bipartisan commission on the Iraq war called for ''renewed and sustained'' steps to defuse broader regional tensions.

While Olmert welcomes European efforts as part of a Western drive to restart Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations that broke down in 2000, he wants any such moves to be coordinated with Israel, spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.

''He seriously wants to go forward'' toward a possible dialogue with moderate Palestinians led by President Mahmoud Abbas and build on a November 26 ceasefire in Gaza, Eisin said.

''Europe can certainly have a strong impact,'' said Eisin, but added: ''We don't particularly see initiatives that include Israel and haven't been discussed with Israel as serious.'' Olmert is also keen to ensure Europe sticks by a Western aid blockade on the Hamas government.

The boycott is aimed at pressuring Hamas to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals.

Eisin said Germany and Italy had not shown a readiness to ease the boycott, but that some Europeans had signalled they could do so if Hamas joined a unity coalition with Abbas's Fatah movement.

SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN Olmert will also prod the Europeans to take stronger measures against Iran's nuclear programme, which Israel fears is aimed at developing atomic weapons but which Tehran says is for energy production.

Israel is believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal. Olmert often refers to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call last year for Israel's destruction.

''I expect significantly more dramatic steps to be taken.

Here is a leader who says openly that it is in his aim to wipe Israel off the map,'' Olmert told Germany's Spiegel magazine at the weekend.

Asked whether Israel would rule out a military strike against Tehran, Olmert replied: ''I rule nothing out.'' Olmert will also discuss the roles of Germany and Italy in a widened peacekeeping force in Lebanon deployed to shore up a U.N.-brokered truce after a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas this summer, Eisin said.

After meeting Merkel, Olmert will hold talks with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in Rome on Wednesday.

While in Italy, Olmert will also meet Pope Benedict at the Vatican.

REUTERS SP HT1415