President Shimon Peres told the Facing Tomorrow conference, which opened last night with a festive session at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, that Israel's enemies belonged to yesterday, and that "the skies of the Middle East are clouded over with Iranian ambition."

Peres' address to the 1,000 foreign guests, who included the presidents of 11 countries, was mostly about Israel's achievements and hope for the future.

However, regarding Iran, he said, "The Iranian threat is taking on two forms. It is destroying Lebanon, breaking apart its unity, destroying its welfare without contributing anything for the future.

"And in the Gaza Strip, a group of religious fanatics is preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state. If it weren't for Hamas, there would have already been a Palestinian state founded on the principle of two states for two peoples. They [Iran] only bring destruction without any benefit whatsoever," the president continued.

Peres told the audience that if those involved had accepted the United Nations resolution calling for two states for two peoples in 1947, there would have been no need to wait 60 years to try and do it again.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also addressed the convention, as did Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski and Nobel Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel.

Sitting next to Peres during the event was billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who contributed $3 million to the conference, half of its cost. Adelson was questioned earlier in the day by police regarding Morris Talansky, the key witness in the bribery suspicions against Olmert.

A special panel took place before the opening event, with the participation of the 11 presidents who are attending the conference, from Albania, Burkina Faso, Croatia, Latvia, Mongolia, Palau, Poland, Rwanda, Slovenia, Uganda and Ukraine.

The panel, moderated by former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair, now the Quartet representative to the peace process, asked each president to say how he thought the world should progress to a better future. The former leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, also took part in the panel.

Earlier yesterday was a pre-conference session with 120 representatives from the Jewish world, sponsored by the conference organizers, the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute. The delegates, divided into a number of working groups, discussed social, educational and other issues involving the future of Israel and the Jewish world.

Twenty-one sessions are to be held today on subjects ranging from the environment to culture and Jewish-Arab coexistence. A special panel of Nobel Prize winners will be held in the afternoon, and the evening will be devoted to a gala event honoring 60 years of friendship between Israel and the U.S.