U.S. Vice President Joe Biden defended the way that President Barack Obama was handling the Iranian nuclear stalemate on Thursday.

In the vice-presidential debate in Danville, Kentucky, Biden argued that Mitt Romney was offering an Iran policy which was not so different from that of Obama.

He also stressed that if deemed necessary, the U.S. military was ready to deal a serious blow to Iran's nuclear ambition.

"If we ever have to take action, unlike when we took office, we'll have the world behind us. And that matters," the vice president said.

"The Israelis and the United States and the military intelligence communities are in the same exact place in terms of how close the Iranians are to getting a nuclear weapon. They are a good way away. There is no difference between our view and theirs," he said, rejecting the Republican assertion that the weakness of the Obama administration toward Iran has estranged Israel, Washington's closest ally in the region.

"These are the most crippling sanctions in the history of sanctions. Are you going to go to war? Is that what you want to do now?" Biden asked his younger challenger Paul Ryan.

The Obama administration has insisted that there is still "time and space" to seek a peaceful resolution to the Iranian issue through the dual-track of sanctions and diplomacy.

Ryan countered by saying "When Barack Obama was elected, they had enough nuclear material to make one bomb. Now they have enough for five. They're four years closer toward nuclear weapons capability."