VIENNA, Feb 12: The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog said on Thursday the world could be headed for destruction if it did not stop the spread of widely available atomic weapons technology.

Mr Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), backed a new call by US President George Bush for a crackdown on atomic smuggling wordlwide.

"I have the same concern and sense of urgency expressed by President Bush to shore up the non-proliferation regime and global security system," Mr ElBaradei said in a statement released at the IAEA's headquarters in Vienna.

He said the IAEA needed "additional authority". "I call on the international community to engage in an urgent dialogue that can move us towards an agreed package of measures to strengthen the non-proliferation regime and international security system," Mr ElBaradei said.

In Washington, President Bush sought global support on Wednesday for tighter curbs on nuclear know-how, taking aim at North Korea and Iran. He also made several references to last week's confession by Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.

"With deadly technology and expertise going on the market, there's the terrible possibility that terrorist groups could obtain the ultimate weapons they desire most," Mr Bush said in an election-year speech.

Mr ElBaradei pressed his point further in an op-ed article in The New York Times on Thursday, warning: "Nuclear proliferation is on the rise." While it was once hard to get nuclear "equipment, material and training . . . today, however, there is a sophisticated worldwide network that can deliver systems for producing material usable in weapons.

"If we sit idly by, this trend will continue," Mr ElBaradei said in the article. "Inevitably, terrorists will gain access to such materials and technology, if not actual weapons.

"If the world does not change course, we risk self-destruction," he said in the article. The article repeated Mr ElBaradei's calls for the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which since 1970 has mandated the IAEA to carry out verification activities, to "be tailored to fit 21st-century realities".

"Without threatening national sovereignty, we can toughen the non-proliferation regime," he said in the Times piece. He proposed tightening "controls over the export of nuclear material, a priority President Bush identified yesterday in his speech on nuclear non-proliferation".

The current system is overseen by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an informal body without its own headquarters that, according to Mr ElBaradei, "relies on a gentlemen's agreement that is not only non-binding, but also limited in its membership: it does not include many countries with growing industrial capacity". -Reuters/AFP