Israeli atomic energy chief Gideon Frank welcomed the idea of such a zone but said Israel advocates "achieving regional peace and security, not arms control per se."

A general conference of the 139-nation agency also unanimously welcomed North Korea's agreement to abandon nuclear weapons and called on Pyongyang to let IAEA inspectors back into the country.

Egyptian ambassador Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy told the conference that the resolution on a weapons-free zone invites Israel, believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, "to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and to accept that its various facilities be subject to the IAEA safeguards system."

Israel has not signed the NPT and neither confirms nor denies reports that it has some 200 atom bombs.

Jordanian ambassador Shebab Madi said: "Unfortunately this resolution will not be sufficient to ensure... the denuclearisation of this region. A policy of double standards will continue throughout the world."

Libyan representative Matouq Mohamed Matouq said: "We should urge Israel to renounce these weapons," and Syrian I. Othman, head of the country's atomic energy commission, said "the first step is for Israel to join the NPT."

Frank said that while Israel thought a weapons-free zone "could eventually serve as a complement to overall efforts to peace and security in the region" it first wanted a general peace agreement.

Frank said Israeli actions, such as its withdrawal from Gaza, had created a "window of opportunity to advancing peace and security in the region."

Confidence-building, as in creating a nuclear-weapons-free zone, "is a long and enduring process," Frank said and should be done in "a manner that does not hamper the security of any participant."

The IAEA conference rejected discussion of "Israeli nuclear capabilities and threat," as proposed in a resolution by Oman, despite a strong push for this by 15 Arab states plus the Palestinian Authority.

The agenda item was put off until next year as part of a compromise that has taken place annually since 1998 in which Arab states drop this agenda request in order to coax Israeli support for a nuclear weapons-free zone.

Emotions were higher this year, however, after the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors found Iran guilty of violating the NPT and threatened to take Tehran to the UN Security Council.

Arab states resent that the IAEA is cracking down on Iran for what the United States charges is a covert nuclear weapons program, while US ally Israel avoids such scrutiny.

The agency welcomed the six-party North Korean nuclear agreement reached in Beijing September 19 as "a first step toward the goal of the verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula in a peaceful manner."

It was a compromise between the United States and China, both involved in the six-party talks. They clashed over promising to supply Pyongyang with a light-water nuclear reactor in order to generate power for peaceful purposes, diplomats said.

China wanted this mentioned, and since it was not, refrained from co-sponsoring the resolution, diplomats said.

For China, Zhang Huazhu warned that "future talks and negotiations will be more complex and difficult."

The United States, which has called North Korea a rogue state seeking weapons of mass destruction, says Pyongyang must first disarm, before getting a reactor as an incentive.

US ambassador Gregory Schulte said: "The United States believes that it is imperative to move rapidly on an agreement to implement the goals outlined in the joint statement."

"US officials wanted a neutral text in Vienna that would not interfere with the six-party talks in Asia," a diplomat said.