More countries could develop nuclear bombs-IAEA

VIENNA, Oct 16 (Reuters) As many as 30 countries may develop the capacity to produce nuclear weapons swiftly unless more is done to tackle the spread of the technology, the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said today.

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), issued the warning a week after North Korea said it had tested a nuclear bomb.

''We are dealing with almost as I call them virtual nuclear weapons states,'' ElBaradei said in an opening speech to a nuclear safeguards conference in Vienna.

He added a new approach was needed ''so not to end up with nine weapons states but another 20 or 30 who have the capacity to develop nuclear weapons in a very short time span.'' Five countries -- the US, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom -- have formally declared their nuclear weapons and signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The four other nations known or suspected to have an atomic bomb are India, Pakistan, Israel, and now North Korea.

ElBaradei said new challenges had emerged as the nuclear technology was available for both peaceful and non peaceful purposes.

It had become fashionable for countries over the past decade to look into the option of ''shielding themselves, protecting themselves through nuclear weapons,'' he said.

''It started with Iraq, we then saw Libya, we are still going through verifying the Iran undeclared programme for almost two decades, we have seen the nuclear test in North Korea,'' he said.

ElBaradei criticised the fact that nuclear control policies were applied in different ways to different countries.

''It is difficult to maintain the logic that for some countries reliance would be made on nuclear weapons or even trying to develop new nuclear weapons while telling everybody else that is not good for you,'' he said.

''The logic is not there and that is an issue we need to look at.'' While ElBaradei did not name names, the United States has often been criticised by other countries for being too lenient with Israel and India even though they have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

ElBaradei also said his agency needed more money for its verification programmes.

''120 million dollar is the budget we are supposed to cover and verify the whole world with,'' he said. ''That's a drop in the ocean.'' Reuters SSC RN1834