Sharon affirms willingness to create nuclear-free zone

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JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is ready to discuss a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East as part of future peace talks, the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency said yesterday.

But Mohamed ElBaradei, wrapping up a three-day trip to Israel, failed to make progress in loosening the country's taboo on disclosing its nuclear-weapons capabilities.

"The prime minister affirmed to me that Israeli policy continues to be that in the context of peace in the Middle East, Israel will be looking forward to the establishment of a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East," Mr. ElBaradei said after a meeting with Mr. Sharon.

Israeli officials stressed that arms-control talks are far off. Mr. Sharon linked the talks to progress in the "road map," an internationally-backed plan for peace between Israelis and the Palestinians that has been stalled since its inception a year ago.

Nonetheless, Mr. ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said he was pleased by Mr. Sharon's comments.

"That's the first time I heard that from the prime minister of Israel," he said. "It's not a new policy, but affirming that policy at the level of prime minister I thought to be quite a welcome development."

Mr. ElBaradei was in Israel to persuade it to loosen its long-standing policy against discussing its nuclear capabilities. Israel is thought to be the only country in the Middle East to have nuclear missiles ready to launch.

In the face of overwhelming evidence, Mr. ElBaradei was eager for at least tacit acknowledgment that Israel has such arms or the means to make them.

But Israel did not budge from its stance of neither confirming nor denying that it has such weapons. It says the policy is the best way to keep Islamic foes from attacking it while denying them the rationale for also seeking nuclear weapons.

"Israel has no reason to change its policy, which has served it well," said a senior Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

In an interview published in the Ha'aretz newspaper yesterday, Mr. ElBaradei said the growing threat of nuclear proliferation has put a new premium on regional security arrangements.

During his visit, Mr. ElBaradei said, Israel repeatedly raised concerns about archrival Iran's nuclear ambitions.

IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky described Mr. ElBaradei's "fear for the Middle East" as an important thread of his visit.

He said Mr. ElBaradei, who is Egyptian, would be happy to act as an informal bridge between the Islamic world, which resents what it considers unfair international tolerance of Israel's secret nuclear capacities, and Israel, which sees itself as facing "an existential threat" from a far larger enemy.

Mr. ElBaradei's agency is probing nearly two decades of suspect nuclear activities in Iran that the United States, Israel and others say reflect attempts to make such weapons.

Tehran insists that it wants nuclear energy only to generate power, but several IAEA reports in the past year have suggested that the Islamic republic has not cooperated fully with agency inspectors.