The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said in a statement that the conditions, which forbid their client to travel abroad or associate with foreigners, "constitute a harsh and daily punishment".

Its attorneys argued in their petition to the court that Vanunu was being denied "the basic rights of flexibility, mobility and opportunity to reintegrate into society, to which he has re-emerged after lengthy imprisonment."

Vanunu, a former technician at the Dimona nuclear plant in southern Israel, was released in April after 18 years in prison for revealing secrets about the Jewish state's nuclear programme to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper.

He stated his desire to leave Israel after his release but the authorities argue that he may still have secrets to reveal. Vanunu, 50, is widely despised in Israel where he is regarded as a traitor not only for leaking nuclear secrets but also for converting to Christianity.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Vanunu said that "all my future is going to be outside Israel... There is hate and danger to my life."

ACRI's petition said that "the prohibition on Vanunu leaving the country not only imposes an unreasonable infringement on his freedom of movement but it also sentences him in a way that he is unable to rehabilitate his life as he is forced to live in a society that abhors him."

Peter Hounam, the Sunday Times journalist who broke the Vanunu story in 1986, was expelled from Israel last week after senior security officials said he had secured an exclusive interview with Vanunu for the BBC.

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