MIDDLE EAST U.N. official: Israel fears Iran's nuclear ambition

Israel refuses to discuss its nuclear capabilities.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- Israel is extremely concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions, the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency said today, an indication that the issue is preventing any change in Israel's nuclear policy.
"They're expressing concern about Iran," Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said after talks with senior officials at Israel's secretive nuclear energy agency.
ElBaradei arrived in Israel on Tuesday to pitch for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons. Israel refuses to discuss its nuclear capacities, but it is thought to be the only state in the Middle East possessing nuclear weapons.
Later today, ElBaradei was scheduled to meet with the Israeli health minister and take an aerial tour over the country.
While declining to go into details about his talks, ElBaradei indicated today that fear that Tehran was trying to develop nuclear arms was a dominant theme.
Suspect Iranian activity
ElBaradei's agency is probing nearly two decades of suspect nuclear activities in Iran that the United States, Israel and others say reflect attempts to make such weapons.
Tehran insists it wants nuclear energy only to generate power, but several IAEA reports over the past year have suggested the Islamic Republic has not fully cooperated with agency inspectors and has failed to clear up suspicions about its aims.
ElBaradei has suggested that the Israelis should at least consider loosening their taboo on talking about nuclear arms as part of any long-term Middle East settlement that would rid the region of such weapons.
He acknowledged Tuesday that he had no "magic wand" to change Israel's policy of so-called nuclear ambiguity.
"But in the long run you need to build a system, where nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction will not be part of your security structure," he said.
Israel's doctrine of nuclear ambiguity is meant to deter its enemies, while denying them the rationale for developing their own nuclear weapons.
In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell declined to take a stand Tuesday on whether Israel should be forced to open its reactors to inspection.
But Powell, at a joint news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, renewed his demand for international pressure on Iran to stop what Washington says are attempts to build nuclear arms.