DAVID Levy, the Israeli Foreign Minister who today becomes the first serving Israeli minister to visit Ireland, yesterday urged the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring, not to complicate Israeli. Palestinian relations by seeking a return visit to the Orient House, the PLO's headquarters in East Jerusalem.

In a wide ranging interview with The Irish Times on the eve of his visit to Dublin and four other European capitals, Mr Levy said the purpose of his trip was to strengthen Israel's ties with Ireland and other EU nations.

But recalling Mr Spring's insistence on calling at the Orient House during his visit to the region in June 1995 - a call that caused a diplomatic spat with Israel, and prompted the abrupt cancellation of Mr Spring's scheduled talks with President Ezer Weizman - Mr Levy asserted that the Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat now accepted that Palestinian political activity in Jerusalem, such as hosting visiting ministers like Mr Spring, represented a breach of the peace accords with Israel.

"So my message to our friends in Europe is, if the Palestinian Authority is prepared to abide by the agreement, why should you come and act in a contrary way? It only puts a spanner in the works of the peace process.

Mr Levy, who flies to Rome this morning, then on to Dublin, and then to London, Bonn and Paris, acknowledged there were differences between his government, which came to power here after elections in May, and the EU, of which Ireland is currently the president.

He agreed, there was criticism from Europe over the government's lifting of a freeze on Jewish settlement in the West Bank, over the delay in the Israeli troop withdrawal from Hebron, and over the general pace of the peace process under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But, drawing deeply on a cigarette in his Foreign Ministry bureau in Jerusalem, Mr Levy retorted that, to hear some of the criticism, "you'd think we'd been in office for years". He stressed the cabinet had not approved the establishment of any new settlements, and that it was committed to all aspects of the accords, including the Hebron withdrawal, provided the Palestinians kept their commitments.

BUT, above all, he noted, the critics ought to realise the great achievement already made by his government:

"In so short a time, we have decided to accept an agreement that, for years, we were opposed to."

Mr Levy has had several run ins with Mr Netanyahu in the brief lifespan of this coalition, specifically over what he regarded as the Prime Minister's efforts to marginalise his role in the process with the Palestinians. The almost bare bookshelves in his office attest to the fact that, until recently, Mr Levy was contemplating resignation from the cabinet, or a move to a different ministry.

"Yes, I did have to fight a bit of a battle. I don't like being underemployed," he said with a smile. "But I think things have worked out now. At least, I hope so."

A 53 year old father of 12, Mr Levy's has been a remarkable political rise: a poor Moroccan immigrant whose family brought him here when he was 19, his first jobs were - as a building labourer; then he became a union activist; and in the 1970s was spotted and adopted as a kind of protege by the late Likud party leader Menachem Begin. He failed in an attempt to succeed Mr Begin as party chief, and failed again when challenging first Yitzhak Shamir and more recently Mr Netanyahu.

BUT the silver haired, bespectacled politician remains a major powerbroker, is the undisputed number two in the coalition and was insistent on getting the Foreign Ministry job when the cabinet was formed, despite an obvious handicap: he speaks no English.

Mr Levy last held this post between 1990 and 1992, and says he warned his European colleagues well in advance that Saddam Hussein was going to invade Kuwait. Acknowledging that Israelis were again concerned at the prospect of Iraqi Scuds landing on their homes, the minister said he thought a renewed assault on Israel was unlikely.

But he took the opportunity to issue an unequivocal warning to Saddam. "If there is a direct threat," he said, "Israel will do what it has to do out of respect for the security of its citizens, and it has the capabilities."

Did this mean that, were Saddam to use non conventional weapons, Israel would respond with a nuclear assault? "Some things go without saying," he observed dryly. "Those who have to, know exactly what our response could be."