US Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday said that Iran was at the top of world potential trouble spots and spoke of the concern that Israel might "act first" to deal with the alleged nuclear threat from Iran.

"You look around the world at potential trouble spots, Iran is right at the top of the list," Cheney said in an interview with MSNBC.

Although Cheney said he was very concerned about Iran's alledged nuclear program and labelled Iran as "a noted sponsor of terror", he also said that Washington would prefer diplomacy to deal with the situation.

"We don't want a war in the Middle East, if we can avoid it. And certainly in the case of the Iranian situation, I think everybody would be best suited by or best treated and dealt with if we could deal with it diplomatically," Cheney said.

However he also noted that "given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards."

The New Yorker magazine reported earlier this week that the Pentagon has sent commandos to Iran in search for possible sites that could be used to develop nuclear and chemical weapons and missiles.

Secret missions have been going on at least since last summer with the goal of identifying target information for up to 26 suspected sites, the magazine said in its Monday edition.

US government officials have rushed to deny the report.