JERUSALEM, Oct 4 (Reuters) -

Germany and Israel agree that Iran should never be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons but they differ on how to achieve this goal, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We are very convinced and strongly share Israel's position that everything must be done to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Where we are not always united is on the path to this goal," Merkel said.

She added that Iran's military presence in Syria and Lebanon was a threat to Israel.

Earlier, Merkel paid homage in Jerusalem to the six million Jews killed by the Nazis and said Germany had a responsibility to confront anti-Semitism and never to forget the Holocaust.

She began a day of meetings between Israeli and German government officials with a visit to Yad Vashem, Israel's national Holocaust memorial, where she laid a wreath on a stone slab that contains ashes of death camp victims.