MIDDLE EAST: The extent of Israel's atomic weapons programme is a mystery to the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the agency's chief said in an interview broadcast yesterday.
"Unfortunately I can't give a precise opinion about it because we don't do any inspections in Israel," Dr Mohamed ElBaradei told Al Arabiya television when asked about the size of Israel's nuclear weapons programme.
"I know that it's a developed programme, and Israel does not deny that it has nuclear capability, but the size of the programme, the extent of its development, really I can't know."
Non-proliferation analysts estimate Israel has from 100 to 200 atomic weapons, but the country has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and does not confirm or deny having nuclear weapons. Israeli's nuclear capability was confirmed in 1986 when Mr Mordechai Vanunu, an employee at its nuclear facility of Dimona, disclosed what was going on there. He was subsequently kidnapped in Rome by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, brought to Israeli and put on trial.
He wil be released from prison in April having completed all of his 18 year sentence. This week, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, decided that Mr Vanunu would be placed under supervision when freed. Sources said he would probably be banned from travelling abroad and have his telephone tapped.
Dr ElBaradei said that while he did not know precise details about Israel's nuclear capability, there was "a conviction that it has a nuclear weapon".
The UN watchdog has long encouraged Israel to sign the NPT and help create a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. Israel has refused to consider nuclear disarmament, citing a precarious security situation.
"Israel still thinks that in the absence of complete recognition by all countries in the region it can't talk about giving up the nuclear deterrent or limiting conventional and non-conventional weapons," Dr ElBaradei said in the interview near the end of a two-day visit to the Libyan capital Tripoli.