JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday chose Moshe Yaalon, an ex-general and vice premier from his right-wing Likud party, to be the country's next defense minister, a government official said.

Yaalon shares Netanyahu's distrust of the Palestinians, but in the past, officials say, he has taken a more cautious line about the timing for a possible Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Editing by Jeffrey Heller)