Jordanian representative Muhyieddeen Touq said that since the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had last week given Iran a deadline to come clean on its alleged nuclear weapons program, action should be taken against "another (Middle Eastern) country," namely Israel, which he said "was using nuclear energy not for peaceful purposes."

"I think it should open up to safeguards," Touq said about Israel.

But despite repeated calls from Arab countries, the IAEA has not passed a resolution since 1991 calling on Israel, not a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to place all its nuclear installations under agency safeguards.

In past years, the president of the conference has made a tepid statement that mentioned the issue, under the title "Israeli Nuclear Capabilities and Threat," merely as an agenda item, rather than holding a vote.

"This year some of the Arab states are more determined, due to Iran," a western diplomat said.

Fifteen Arab League states are sponsoring a resolution calling on Israel to sign the NPT.

It calls for NPT and IAEA safeguards to guarantee a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.

The Arab League resolution calls 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 "urges" all states supplying Israel with "nuclear materials, equipment and related assistance" to apply NPT safeguards to such exports.

There is also an Egyptian resolution calling on "all states in the Middle East" to 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 Wednesday the Jewish state was willing to accept that such a zone 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 weapons-free zone.

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

Gwozdecky said the gathering mainly endorses decisions made by the IAEA's executive arm, the 35-nation board of governors, which last week imposed an October 31 deadline on Iran to prove it is not secretly developing nuclear weapons.

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