LONDON, November 5 (News Agencies) - Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Tuesday, November 5, "it would be the gravest possible error" to back calls by far-right Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the international community to target Iran as soon as the war on Iraq is over.

"Number one I understand why people in Israel are frightened, but number two I profoundly disagree with him and I think it would be the gravest possible error to think in that way," Straw told BBC radio, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

In an interview with London's Times newspaper, published Tuesday, Sharon said Iran - one of the countries that U.S. President George W. Bush had dubbed an "axis of evil" - should be put under pressure "the day after" action against Iraq ends.

"I know that Iran has a very hostile attitude to the existence of the state of Israel, but I also know that Iran... is a nation in a state of transition," said Straw, who has visited Iran three times in just over a year - the latest trip made in October to drum up support for a hardline stance against Iraq.

Straw added: "I think that the way to ensure proper progress with Iran is not by that kind of hostile threat but by the process and strategy of constructed and critical engagement that we are involved in."

While Sharon told the Times that he regarded Iraq as "a very, very dangerous country led by an insane regime", he considered Iran to be a "center of world terror", and that as soon as an Iraq conflict was concluded, he would push for Iran to be at the top of the "to do" list.

Sharon said: "I talked about these things with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin a few days ago and I have been to Washington, and one of the things I talked about was what will be later, if Iraq is going to be disarmed.

"One of the things I mentioned is that the free world should take all the necessary steps to prevent irresponsible countries from having weapons of mass destruction, Iran, Iraq of course, and Libya is working on a nuclear weapon."

"Iran makes every effort to possess weapons of mass destruction on the one hand, and ballistic missiles. That is a danger to the Middle East, to Israel, and a danger to Europe," Sharon told the Times.

"They are working now on a ballistic missile [with a range] of 1,300 kilometers [800 miles]. They have almost reached this range already."

Sharon claimed that Iran has allegedly sent rockets to Lebanon via Syria, and was a problem in the occupied Palestinian territories, where Iranian money is said to support Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation.

Sharon repeated threats that Israel would strike Iraq if it came under any attack.

On the Palestinian issue, the far-right premier returned to criticizing elected Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, saying he is nothing but a "symbol", and ruling out his having any role overseeing financial or security functions.

The Times daily also reported that Sharon had said the Israeli government was considering an unprecedented crackdown on Israeli Arabs within its own borders, saying that a minority of them were turning against the country.