Israeli peace pioneer Yitzhak Rabin's assassin said on Monday that he has only one regret – that he didn't strike earlier. Appearing in court as Israel marks five years since Rabin, then Israel's prime minister, was gunned down after a peace rally in Tel Aviv, assassin Yigal Amir, relaxed and smiling, chatted with reporters before a hearing about his prison conditions. Amir, 30, was sentenced to life in prison. An extremist nationalist, he said he shot Rabin to stop his peacemaking efforts with the Palestinians After the rally on November 4, 1995, as Rabin was walking toward his car, accompanied by security agents, Amir approached him from the back and shot him twice with a pistol, fatally wounding him. Handcuffed and wearing a brown prison services jacket in the Beer Sheba courtroom, not far from the prison where he is held in isolation, Amir was asked if he has any regrets. “Yes,” He replied evenly, “Why didn't I do it earlier.” Rabin, along with his Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for achieving their first interim peace accord. Amir said he does not want a pardon. “I didn't do this on a personal basis,” He said. “I did it to prevent something.” Bureau Report