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Arab summit ends on topic of regional nuclear ambitions

Arab leaders push for nuclear energy while warning of an arms race.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 30, 2007

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Arab leaders pushed ahead Thursday with plans to develop nuclear programs, even as they warned of a possible Middle East nuclear arms race created by powerful rivals Israel and Iran.

On the final day of their annual summit, Arab League leaders said they would hold a high-level meeting this summer to review plans for an Arab nuclear industry.

Jordan's King Abdullah called in a speech for the creation of a "Peaceful Arab Center for Using Nuclear Energy" to help "build our societies and modernize the realms of science, industry, agriculture and health."

They called for a nuclear arms-free zone in the Mideast, though they stressed all nations' rights to a peaceful nuclear program.

Wael al-Assad, the league's official in charge of preparations for the meeting, said closer nuclear cooperation was prompted by fear of Israel's nuclear weapons and Iran's escalation of its program.

Iran says its program aims only to generate electricity, denying U.S. accusations it is developing nuclear weapons.

But the Arab summit was focused mainly on reviving a land-for-peace offer to Israel, as well as forging a united stance in the numerous crises facing the Middle East.

Arab leaders urged Israel to accept a 5-year-old peace plan that they say could end the decades-old Middle East conflict, calling on the final day of the summit for negotiations with the Jewish state.

But key elements of the plan raise doubts about its chances for success. It calls for the creation of a Palestinian state and for Israel to relinquish lands captured in the 1967 Mideast War, a point flatly rejected by the Israelis when the proposal was first unveiled in 2002.

Israeli Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres said that the issues raised by the 2002 plan should be ironed out in direct talks with the Arab states - not set as preconditions.

Information from the Los Angeles Times was used in this report.

[Last modified March 30, 2007, 01:28:38]