VIENNA, Sept 17: Fifteen Arab League states have proposed a resolution condemning Israel at a meeting of the UN’s atomic agency for not signing the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), diplomats said on Wednesday.

“There have been lots of developments (concerning suspected nuclear arms programmes) in the Middle East, such as Iraq and Iran. Israel also has to be mentioned,” an Arab diplomat said.

Referring to Israel, the Arab League resolution said “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 “urged” all states supplying Israel with “nuclear materials, equipment and related assistance” to apply NPT safeguards to such exports.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, which has been holding meetings in Vienna since last week, has called on Iran to prove by Oct 31 that it is not secretly developing nuclear weapons.

The IAEA is also eager to continue enforcing its UN mandate and get back to Iraq to carry out monitoring of nuclear activities.

Israel, which is believed to have nuclear weapons but has not confirmed this, is a member of the IAEA.

But Israel has not signed the NPT, which went into effect in 1970.

“Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons is likely to lead to a destructive nuclear arms race in the region, especially if Israel’s nuclear installations remain outside any international control,” the Arab League states said in an explanatory memorandum.

The resolution is expected to be considered on Friday on the last day of a general conference of the IAEA’s 136 members.

The annual conference is not expected to take any new decision regarding either Israel or other thorny issues, such as the verification of nuclear programmes in Iran, Iraq and North Korea, spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said.

The spokesman said the conference mainly endorses decisions made by the IAEA’s executive arm, the 35-nation board of governors, which last week imposed the deadline on Iran.Still, the discussion on Israel should be heated.

The Iranian ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Akbar Salehi, said bitterly when the agency imposed the deadline on Iran that it was unfair that “among those who have pursued and produced nuclear weapons... Israel gets away with murder”.

“It is pampered instead of being chastised,” Mr Salehi said.

Resolutions on Iraq and North Korea were also being considered in committee work but it was not certain they would be tabled, diplomats said.

They said France would like to see a resolution urging the IAEA to continue its work in Iraq, but that the United States and Britain opposed Iraq being brought up at the IAEA conference.

NORTH KOREA: Canada is sponsoring a hardline resolution on North Korea for its nuclear weapons activities, but the text faces opposition from China, diplomats said.