UN leader Ban Ki-moon threw his support Thursday behind a conference aimed at creating a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, urging all countries in the region to attend it.

Finland is ready to host the meeting in Helsinki in mid-December, which Ban hailed as a "unique opportunity for all states of the region to collectively enhance their security," the secretary-general's office said.

Ban "urges all states of the region to participate in and contribute to a successful conference," it added after he met Wednesday with Finland's undersecretary of state fore foreign affairs, Jaakko Laajava.

The UN leader also welcomed a commitment from the Arab League to consider the conference "in a serious and constructive manner."

Neither Israel nor Iran have said they plan to attend the gathering.

Israel and its Western allies worry that Iran's nuclear program masks a drive to develop an atomic bomb. Tehran vehemently denies the charge, saying its activities are aimed for civilian energy and medical purposes only.

Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, has said it will not rule out unilateral military action against Tehran to prevent it from developing a weapon.

The Jewish state is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which governs and restricts the development of nuclear technology, although it is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Shaul Horev, head of Israel's Atomic Energy Commission, has said the situation in the Middle East was not yet "conducive" to creating a nuclear-free zone.