"Bull's eye", "Arrow strikes" trumpeted the headlines in the mass-circulation dailies Yediot Aharonot and Maariv, with both papers highlighting that during this seventh successful test a real Scud missile rather a substitute Black Sparrow had been used.

Some six minutes after the 11-meter-long (38 feet), seven-ton Scud was launched at a height of dozens of kilometers above the Pacific Ocean, it was intercepted and destroyed by the Arrow II, or Hetz in Hebrew, which traveled nine times faster than the speed of sound, the papers said.

The test was carried out jointly with the US Missile Defense Agency at the Point Magu Sea Range in California.

"We live in uncertain times. Countries in the third circle are pursuing efforts to acquire non-conventional means which they will couple up with long-range firing capabilities," said Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz's office, referring to countries such as Israel's archfoe Iran.

"The Hetz reinforces Israel's deterring power," the statement said.

Arie Herzog, who heads the defense ministry's anti-missile program, was even more explicit.

"Iran is developing more sophisticated missiles with a longer range and we will make sure that, when they become operational, we have an adequate answer for them," he told army radio.

Israel's intelligence services told the country's security cabinet last week that Iran would produce nuclear weapons by 2007, public radio reported.

In November 2003, Israel's Mossad overseas intelligence service had already raised the alarm, telling a parliamentary commission that Iran's nuclear program, combined with its long-range Shahab-3 missiles, constituted the "greatest threat to Israel's existence since it was created," in 1948.

In an editorial called: "From defense to deterrence," Yediot hailed Thursday's successful test-firing, writing that "this makes the Arrow a defense system as well as a deterrent system of the first order.

"All Arab rulers received a clear message yesterday -- if they try to launch ballistic missiles at Tel Aviv, they will be stopped by the Arrow, and then Israel can respond with all the measures it has at its disposal."

In Maariv, reserve general Yitzhak Ben Israel wrote that "the Arrow is the only operational weapons system in the world capable of taking down missiles from the Scud family".

"The Arrow was already declared operational several years ago, even before yesterday's test. The show that took place in our streets during the 1991 Gulf war will never repeat itself.

"The hole in Israel's defense, which rendered the home front vulnerable to long-range missiles launched from afar, has been plugged," Ben Israel, who heads the department of defense studies at Tel Aviv University, wrote.

First launched in 1988, the Arrow program was stepped up after Israel was hit by 39 Iraqi Scud missiles during the 1991 Gulf war that left two people dead and caused extensive material damage.

The program is half funded by the United States.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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