IAEA to press Israel to keep ME nuke free

UN nuclear watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei hopes to get Israel to begin talks on ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons, whether it admits to having them or not, when he flies to the Jewish state yesterday.

Under its policy of "strategic ambiguity," Israel neither admits nor denies having nuclear weapons. But international experts believe Israel has from 100 to 200 warheads based on estimates of the amount of plutonium its reactors have produced.

ElBaradei had wanted to get the Israelis to abandon their ambiguity policy, Western diplomats said, but Israel has made clear this was impossible at present.

"There are no signs of a policy change in Israel," said a diplomat close to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The diplomat, who declined to be identified, said ElBaradei would not be pushing Israel to abandon the policy, which it has adhered to for decades to avoid sparking an atomic arms race in the region.

But the diplomat said ElBaradei intended to "promote the concept of a nuclear free zone in the Middle East" in meetings with senior Israeli officials including Prime Minster Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.

Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This means it is not obliged to show or declare its nuclear facilities or activities to UN inspectors.

A top Israeli analyst said it would be unwise for Israel to give up any nuclear deterrent or sign the NPT now because of the instability of the Middle East.

"The threat to Israel has not diminished much in the past five decades and hatred of Israel in the Arab and Muslim worlds remains intense," Gerald Steinberg, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, wrote about ElBaradei's visit.

Israel and the United States both accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, a charge that Tehran denies. Libya and pre-war Iraq are also known to have unsuccessfully pursued atomic weapons. All three had considered themselves enemies of Israel.