Bolton said he discussed with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and others "steps that the United States and others are taking to prevent the spread of those weapons, obviously, particularly here in the region."

Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, who also met President Hosni Mubarak's top advisor Osama al-Baz, said he briefed the Egyptians about the results of meetings in Madrid last Thursday aimed at countering the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

The forum was described as a first response to US President George W. Bush's call for greater international cooperation during last month's launch of a drive against such weapons.

Besides Bolton, experts in Madrid were also from Australia, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

The United States and other countries "agreed that the spread of weapons of mass destruction was sufficiently serious that we had to consider means of interdicting these shipments at sea, and in the air," Bolton said here.

They also agreed to other measures he did not specify.

In December, the Spanish navy stopped and searched an unflagged vessel in the Mediterranean found to be carrying 15 North Korean Scud missiles to Yemen, but US forces had no legal right to seize the cargo as the ship was intercepted in international waters.

When a reporter asked if Bolton and Maher had discussed making the Middle East free of nuclear weapons, the US envoy replied: "We certainly talked about weapons of mass destruction in the region."

Egypt and Arab countries have long called for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, which includes a demand that Israel scrap the arms it has never admitted possessing but is generally understood to have deployed.

Under an understanding with the United States dating back to 1969, Israel has committed itself to abstain from any comment on its nuclear potential and not to carry out nuclear tests, Israeli newspapers have reported in the past.

In return, the United States does not pressure Israel to adhere to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which would oblige the Jewish state to submit its nuclear facilities to international supervision.

Bolton said he would travel later Sunday to Saudi Arabia and "elsewhere" in the region before returning to Washington.

WAR.WIRE