Mordechai Vanunu arrested for having contact with foreign agents in Israel

Israeli police alleged that Mr Vanunu had been in contact with foreign agents.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Mr Vanunu met with "a number of foreigners," something he was ordered not to do for fear he might divulge classified information.

Mr Vanunu, who has been charged with violating this order before, flashed a "V" sign and unleashed a rambling tirade against the "impotent" Jewish state as he entered a Jerusalem court.

His lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, said Vanunu was arrested because he has a Norwegian girlfriend whom police have already interrogated.

A court spokesman said Vanunu would be released from jail Tuesday evening and was ordered to stay under house arrest through Thursday.

"Vanunu was detained in Jerusalem last night," said Rosenfeld. "He is suspected of having had contacts with foreign agents."

Mr Vanunu was jailed in 1986 for disclosing the inner workings of Israel's Dimona nuclear plant to a British newspaper. Since his release in 2004, he has been detained several times for violating the terms of his parole which ban him from travel or contact with foreigners.

Israel maintains a policy of nuclear ambiguity. It is widely believed to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, with around 200 nuclear warheads.

The Jewish state has refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or allow international surveillance of Dimona, in the southern Negev desert.

Mr Vanunu became an international cause celebre during his time in prison. At home, he is still widely reviled for converting to Christianity shortly before he was kidnapped in Italy and jailed after being covertly shipped back to the Jewish state