The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday that this is expected to delay the delivery of an initial batch of 25 of the aircraft ordered by Israel, which also has an option on 50 more. That's enough for three squadrons.

Haggling over the price of the jets is causing further problems.

The contract for the F-35 had been expected to be signed in early 2010, but that is no longer considered feasible because of the unresolved issue of which systems the Israeli air force planes will have.

Delivery of the initial 25 F-35s was originally scheduled to begin in 2014, but that it is now expected to be put back.

At present, the U.S. Air Force is slated to be the first recipients of the F-35, then Britain's Royal Air Force and then the Israelis.

Israel's Defense Ministry made an official request to the Pentagon for the aircraft in July despite the absence of final agreement on such issues as the cost and whether the Israeli air force would be allowed to install its own electronic warfare and communications systems.

On pricing, the Pentagon had originally proposed $200 million per aircraft for the first batch, more than twice that the Israelis had anticipated. The Defense Ministry has been looking at a figure of $70 million to $80 million per aircraft.

The Jerusalem Post quoted an unidentified senior Israeli officer as saying that if the cost per aircraft reached $100 million the Defense Ministry would have to reconsider the number of aircraft it would be able to buy.

The cost had increased because the Israelis had requested the installation of many state-of-the-art systems in the export version of the aircraft.

The Israelis want the F-35 to replace some of its older Lockheed Martin F-16s and Boeing F-15s.

The later variants of these aircraft, customized for the Israeli air force to carry out long-range missions with some of the most powerful bombs and missiles in the Israeli arsenal, would be tasked with carrying out any pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear program.

There has been growing pressure in Israel for such a strike because the Iranian nuclear program is seen as an existential threat to the Jewish state.

However, it is unlikely in the present circumstances that the F-35 would be available for such an operation.

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