"There have been lots of developments (concerning suspected nuclear arms programs) in the Middle East, such as Iraq and Iran. Israel also has to be mentioned," an Arab diplomat told AFP at a general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The IAEA, which has been holding meetings in Vienna since last week, had last Friday called on Iran to prove by October 31 that it was not secretly developing nuclear weapons.

Fifteen Arab League states switched attention to Israel by proposing a resolution late Tuesday calling on the Jewish state to sign the NPT.

On Wednesday, Egypt proposed a further resolution calling for NPT and IAEA safeguards to guarantee a nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East.

The Arab League resolution called on "Israel, the only state in the Middle East region that is not party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to accede to it without delay."

It also "urged" all states supplying Israel with "nuclear materials, equipment and related assistance" to apply NPT safeguards to such exports.

The Egyptian resolution said "all states in the Middle East" should sign the NPT and accept IAEA "safeguards to all their nuclear activities" in order to create a nuclear-weapon-free zone.

Gideon Frank, head of Israel's Atomic Energy Commission, said the Jewish state was willing to accept that a NWFZ could "eventually" be part of a peace formula for the Middle East.

But he said Israel could not be condemned for not signing the NPT since it "has neither threatened any of its neighbors, nor has it acted in defiance of any of its international commitments."

He said Arab states should realize "there is no substitute to direct negotiations, reconciliation and freely reached agreements" and that condemning Israel for not signing the NPT could destroy any consensus over an eventual NWFZ.

The two resolutions were expected to be considered Friday on the last day of a general conference of the IAEA's 136 members states.

The annual conference, which started Monday, is not expected to take any new decision regarding either Israel or other thorny issues, such as the verification of nuclear programs in Iran, Iraq and North Korea, spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told AFP.

Gwozdecky said the conference mainly endorses decisions made by the IAEA's executive arm, the 35-nation board of governors, which last week imposed the deadline on Iran.

Still, the discussion on Israel should be heated.

The Iranian ambassador to the IAEA Ali Akbar Salehi reacted bitterly when the agency imposed the deadline on Iran last Friday, saying it was unfair that "among those who have pursued and produced nuclear weapons... Israel gets away with murder."

"It is pampered instead of being chastised," Salehi said.

Resolutions on Iraq and North Korea were also being considered in committee work but it was not certain they would be proposed, diplomats said.

They said France would like to see a resolution urging the IAEA to continue its work in Iraq but that the United States and Britain opposed Iraq being brought up at the IAEA conference.

"It's a question of whom do you address the resolution to," said one diplomat referring the the fact that there is only a provisional, but not elected, Iraqi government under the US occupation.

Canada, meanwhile, is sponsoring a hardline resolution on North Korea for its nuclear weapons activities, but the text faces opposition from China, diplomats said.

The IAEA wants its inspectors to return to North Korea, where they were expelled in December as Pyongyang angrily withdrew from the NPT amid US charges that it was developing nuclear weapons.

WAR.WIRE