MOSCOW, June 27: UN atomic energy agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Israel should "clarify" its nuclear activities and sign on to a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, in comments in Moscow ahead of a nuclear power conference on Sunday.

"I think everybody takes it as a given that Israel has a nuclear capability if not nuclear weapons," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general ElBaradei told reporters upon arriving in Moscow on Saturday.

He said it was up to Israel to decide whether "to come into the open . . . but I'd like to make sure eventually they subscribe to a nuclear weapons freeze in the Middle East and that we clarify all nuclear activities in Israel and everywhere else."

ElBaradei is to travel to Israel from July 6-8 on a mandate from the IAEA to work towards creating a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.

"As we know Israel is the only country in the Middle East so far as we know that has (nuclear) facilities that are not under international safeguards," ElBaradei said. "So it's part of my mandate to go and talk to Israel to see whether I can get things started somewhat," he said.

"I think the message we need at the end of the day is to rid the Middle East of all weapons of mass destruction. Israel agrees with that. They say that has to be in the context of a peace agreement," ElBaradei said.

He said there should be a "parallel dialogue on security and... the peace process. I don't think you'll have peace without people understanding what sort of security structure you will have."

He said it was "not sustainable in any region or even globally to have some (people) rely on nuclear weapons and others being told they should not have nuclear weapons," a clear reference to the IAEA's cracking down on Iran for suspected nuclear weapons development.

Israel, which is believed to have up to 200 nuclear weapons, is a member of the IAEA but not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which the IAEA is mandated to enforce. Israel is thus not a subject of IAEA surveillance and verification.

IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said it would be ElBaradei's first trip to Israel in six years and that he would be carrying out his mandate from the 137-member agency "to promote non-proliferation and a nuclear weapon-free zone in the Middle East."

ElBaradei will visit Israel after two other critical trips this year - to Libya, which has disarmed its nuclear weapons programmes, and to Iran.

ElBaradei's trip also follows the release from prison earlier this year of Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu.

The one-time technician at the Dimona nuclear plant in southern Israel was jailed in 1986 after leaking details of the plant to a British newspaper.

Vanunu has become a hero of the anti-nuclear movement and says Israel should rid itself of nuclear weapons and open up Dimona to international inspection.

Arab countries that are members of the IAEA have complained that Israel's alleged nuclear weapons programme is not being investigated, at a time when countries like Iran are under intense scrutiny from the UN agency.

Israel's policy is to "neither deny nor confirm" that it has nuclear weapons.

At an IAEA conference in Vienna last September, Arab states had tried and failed to get the UN watchdog to demand that Israel submit to nuclear weapons proliferation safeguards.-AFP