Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Saturday that Egypt welcomed an IAEA endorsement of its proposal to apply the energy agency's safeguards system to all nuclear activities and installations in Mideast countries, the official MENA news agency reported.

Abul Gheit said in a statement that such an endorsement by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meant that these safeguards would be applied to Israel.

Many Arab countries, including Egypt, believed that Israel was the only country to have nuclear weapons in the Middle East but Israel has never admitted or denied it.

Abul Gheit hailed the fact that the proposal was adopted by an 89 percent majority vote, saying the endorsement showed a trend to promote a system that would help cement the system of nuclear non- proliferation and create an area free from nuclear weapons in the Middle East region as well.

The Egyptian official urged the IAEA chief and the nuclear countries to shoulder their responsibility and start to take practical and serious steps to activate the resolution.

He urged Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as it was the only state in the region still balking at coming aboard.

Source: Xinhua