MIDDLE EAST Israel is sticking point in WMD debate

Libya's leader said disarmament in the region would press Israel to do likewise.
SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) -- Syria and Egypt dismissed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's call for Arab nations to follow his lead and get rid of weapons of mass destruction, insisting Wednesday that Israel must first eliminate its suspected nuclear arsenal.
Gadhafi's remark was seen as being aimed at Syria. U.S. officials have repeatedly alleged that Syria has chemical weapons and is sponsoring terrorism. Syria denies the charge.
Egypt has failed to ratify the chemical weapons convention and reportedly used such weapons when it intervened in Yemen's civil war in the 1960s. It is unclear whether Egypt still has chemical weapons.
Pressure on Syria
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell ratcheted up the pressure Wednesday, urging Syria to "get out of the hole" of being an international pariah.
"You need to start getting rid of weapons of mass destruction programs, stop supporting terrorist activities which destabilize the region, and come out and start participating in the 21st-century world that has benefits for you -- if you will get rid of this kind of behavior," Powell said during a radio show.
Gadhafi also said that if other nations abandon weapons of mass destruction, it would increase pressure on Israel to do likewise.
Neither Syrian President Bashar Assad nor Egyptian head of state Hosni Mubarak spoke to reporters after their talks, which were arranged after Gadhafi's speech. But Egypt's presidential adviser, Osama el-Baz, indicated that Syria would not be moved by Gadhafi's words.
"Israel should not expect to be the last country [in the Middle East] to be free of weapons of mass destruction," el-Baz told reporters.
Israel has never denied nor confirmed having nuclear bombs but is widely believed to have them. Those suspicions were echoed again this month by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
International effort
A French foreign ministry official raised the possibility Tuesday that France, Germany and Britain could play a role in talks with Syria. The three countries recently persuaded Iran to be more open about its nuclear program and allow greater U.N. inspections.
"I can tell you that we are conducting three-way discussions about questions regarding the region," said Cecile Pozzo di Borgo, a deputy spokeswoman for the French foreign ministry, during a briefing with reporters.
She wouldn't confirm a report in the British newspaper The Guardian that the European countries were trying to persuade Syria to open up for inspections and sign an agreement regarding its chemical weapons.
In a statement at the end of the summit, Assad and Mubarak stressed that "current developments in the Middle East demonstrate the need to declare the Middle East a zone free of all weapons of mass destruction -- including all states and Israel."
In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at Israel's Dimona nuclear plant, gave pictures of his workplace to The Times of London. Based on the photographs, scientists at the time said Israel had the sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world. Vanunu is serving an 18-year term for treason and espionage.