Israel must be coerced into signing the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, said Dr Mohmood Hussein Nasreddin, Director General of the Arab Nuclear Authority.

Dr Nasreddin, speaking at the Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-up, said Arab countries were entitled to demand that the United Nations and the international community consider Israel a rogue state for its refusal to sign the treaty.

Dr Nasreddin is in the country to discuss means of promoting cooperation between the UAE and the Arab Nuclear Authority. "International pressure should be exercised to force Israel to disarm. It should be coerced to put all its nuclear facilities under regular international inspections, as with other countries," he said.

"Arab countries have always taken a clear stand vis-à-vis the signing of the NPT at all international forums but Israel has declined to sign the treaty."

Nuclear installations of all the Non-proliferation Treaty signatories are subjected to international inspections, while Israel has repeatedly refused inspectors the permission to approach its nuclear installations, and storage sites, he pointed out.

Dr Nasreddin said the United States vetoed all UN resolutions, which required Israel to halt its nuclear activities.

Arab countries have embarked upon a plan, proposed by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, to declare the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction, he said. Dr Nasreddin said it was not in the interest of Arab countries to perpetuate an atmosphere of suspicion over the use of nuclear energy.

He stressed that the use of nuclear energy in Arab countries is restricted to scientific research for peaceful purposes. He vehemently refuted allegations pertaining to the storage of nuclear weapons or their transfer to other countries.

"These are tendentious allegations concocted by the Zionists in order to embarrass the Arabs and to bring Syria and Libya under pressure by accusing them of possessing nuclear weapons," he said.

The director general rejected claims that Iran had any secret nuclear reactors, and maintained that the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) fully aware of all Iranian reactors, which are subject to supervision.

He said the reactor at Bushahar being built by Russia was for generating electricity, but the U.S. and Israel were pressurising Russia to abandon the project.

He recalled an agreement between Russia and Iran according to which Iran was obliged to return the radioactive waste to Russia.

This guaranteed non-usage of spent up fuel for other uses, he said.

With regards to India and Pakistan, he believes both countries have refrained from signing the NPT due to the ongoing border dispute over Kashmir. Both countries carried out nuclear detonations in 1998.

However, he expressed confidence that the two countries would sign the NPT as soon as the UN acknowledged them as nuclear-capable countries.