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By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON Mon Mar 2, 2015 6:57pm EST

1 of 2. U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during an exclusive interview with Reuters in the Library of the White House in Washington March 2, 2015.

Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran must commit to a verifiable freeze of at least 10 years on sensitive nuclear activity for a landmark atomic deal to be reached, but the odds are still against sealing a final agreement, U.S. President Barack Obama told Reuters on Monday.

Interviewed at the White House, Obama moved to dial back tensions over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned speech to Congress on Tuesday opposing the Iran deal, saying it was a distraction that would not be "permanently destructive" to U.S. Israeli ties.

But he strongly criticized Netanyahu's stance and stressed there was a "substantial disagreement" between them over how to achieve their shared goal of preventing Israel's arch foe from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Talks between major powers and Iran to restrict Tehran's nuclear capabilities in exchange for an easing of sanctions have reached a critical stage ahead of an end of March deadline for a framework deal and a June 30 date for a final agreement.

Obama's comment about the time frame for a freeze represents one of the U.S. government's strongest signals yet of its red line for a successful deal.

If, in fact, Iran is willing to agree to double-digit years of keeping their program where it is right now and, in fact, rolling back elements of it that currently exist ... if weve got that, and weve got a way of verifying that, theres no other steps we can take that would give us such assurance that they dont have a nuclear weapon," he said.

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Exclusive: Obama says Iran must halt key nuclear work for ...