AFP - Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni said Thursday she had discussed the need for a quick resumption of Middle East peace talks during her meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"Time is against us," she told reporters following talks at the Elysee palace that also touched on Iran.

"We discussed the need to re-launch the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians and I believe that this is part of Israel's interest to relaunch the negotiations from the point at which we stopped basically a year ago."

Israel last month announced a 10-month moratorium on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank in a step aimed at restarting stalled peace talks after months of US pressure.

The Palestinians, who have demanded a full settlement freeze before resuming the talks, rejected the measure as insufficient.

Sarkozy has in recent months stepped up French diplomatic efforts to revive the peace process, but there have been no concrete gains.

Concerning Iran's disputed nuclear programme, Livni called for "more effective sanctions" on Tehran to force it to meet international demands to reveal the extent of its atomic activities.

"The world cannot afford to have Iran with a nuclear weapon," said Livni, a former foreign minister and now leader of the centrist Kadima party.