Monday September 29, 2008

Lack of funds threatens UN atomic watchdog-ElBaradei

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief urged 145 member states on Monday to get to grips with an IAEA funding crisis undermining its ability to prevent nuclear proliferation threats.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei smiles during an international seminar on nuclear energy in Rio de Janeiro December 7, 2007, file photo. (REUTERS/Sergio Moraes)

Opening the U.N. watchdog's annual assembly, Mohamed ElBaradei made an urgent call for increased funding, more modern equipment and greater legal power to check nuclear programmes in suspect countries.

"We have really reached a turning point. Years of zero (real) growth budgets have left us with a failing infrastructure and a troubling dependence on voluntary support which invariably has conditions attached," he said.

"This is not just about money. We do not work in a political vacuum. Political commitment to the goals of the agency needs to be renewed at the highest level," ElBaradei told the IAEA's General Conference at its Vienna headquarters.

"It would be a tragedy of epic proportions if we fail to act (for lack of resources) until after a nuclear conflagration, accident or terrorist attack that could have been prevented."

Among tough IAEA challenges are investigations into alleged covert nuclear work in Iran and Syria that the United States and some allies suspect may be intended to make atom bombs.

ElBaradei urged IAEA members to accept the recommendation of an independent commission for an 80 million euro ($117 million) injection to modernise IAEA labs and emergency response abilities, and a doubling of the budget by 2020.

The annual week-long IAEA meeting is dedicated to ways of improving non-proliferation and access to nuclear energy for development needs. But it also airs politicised disputes between nuclear haves and have-nots and this year will be no different.

A row between mainly Islamic states and Israel was sure to re-erupt over their push for resolutions demanding it subject its nuclear programme to IAEA checks and scrap its undeclared nuclear arsenal to free the Middle East of such weapons.

ISRAELI PROTEST

Israel filed a motion on Monday for the measures, one titled "Israel's nuclear capabilities", to be struck off the agenda. No decision was immediately made.

Arabs say Israeli nuclear might represents a chronic imbalance of power and is pushing others to seek weapons of mass destruction.

Israel has said the resolutions are "substantially unwarranted and flawed" while some neighbours still do not recognise its existence and Iran seeks its elimination.

A six-year-long IAEA probe of Iran has reached an impasse over Tehran's failure to explain allegations of secret nuclear weapons research beyond issuing denials not corroborated by substance, ElBaradei said earlier this month.

He reiterated on Monday that the IAEA was in no position to verify Iran's secretive nuclear programme was wholly peaceful -- Tehran says it is for electricity only -- and called again on Iran to be fully transparent with inspectors.

Further controversy lurks at the IAEA meeting with the West opposing an Arab-backed bid by Syria for a seat on the U.N. watchdog's 35-nation governing board, even though Damascus is under agency investigation over alleged secret nuclear work.

ElBaradei cited a "serious disconnect" between what member states expected the IAEA to do and the financial means -- which come mainly from wealthy Western countries -- they provided.

The IAEA, guardian of the global nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, does not have the authority to secure full cooperation from countries under investigation nor access for inspectors beyond declared nuclear sites.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)

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