IAEA STRUGGLES WITH MIDEAST PARLEYLONDON [MENL] -- The International Atomic Energy Agency has been struggling with arranging a meeting on a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.
IAEA sources said director-general Mohammed El Baradei has been unable to obtain agreement for an agenda for such a meeting. The sources said Egypt has sought to place Israel's purported nuclear weapons arsenal as a main item on the agenda.
"The issue is stuck," an IAEA source said.
The agency sought such a meeting ahead of the parley to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in May 2005. Egypt wants to link the NPT review with a meeting that would focus on eliminating nuclear weapons from the Middle East.