Mohamed ElBaradei is expected to ask for help in ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons during his visit, despite Israel allegedly being the only state in the region to have the bomb.

Experts said the mission of ElBaradei, the director general of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had almost no chance of succeeding and was more of a political gesture to convince Arab states the IAEA is as concerned about Israel as it is about Iran, which it is investigating on suspicions of Tehran's hiding a secret nuclear weapons program.

"I don't know what he is coming to see" in Israel, Sharon said in a brief statement carried on military radio.

"Israel is obliged to hold in its own hands all the force components needed for its defence.

"Our policy of ambiguity on nuclear arms has proved its worth, and it will continue," Sharon added. He did not elaborate.

Many foreign experts believe that Israel does possess a nuclear arsenal, comprising around 200 warheads.

ElBaradei said in Moscow last week that Israel should "clarify" its nuclear activities and start working towards ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons.

IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky confirmed Saturday that these would be key topics on ElBaradei's visit Tuesday to Thursday. ElBaradei is to meet with Israeli atomic energy officials as well as cabinet ministers and Sharon himself on Wednesday.

Israeli analyst Gerald Steinberg held out little hope for ElBaradei to make much progress.

Steinberg, from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said in a written forecast of the visit sent to AFP that Israel was not about to change its ambiguity policy and sign on to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that mandates the IAEA to verify atomic activities worldwide.

"There is no foundation for a change" since "the threat to Israel has not diminished much in the past five decades and hatred of Israel in the Arab and Muslim worlds remains intense," Steinberg said.

He said Israel was particularly worried about its arch enemy Iran.

Steinberg said Israel's giving up its "nuclear insurance policy . . . would actually make the region more unstable" and that Israel would not accept a trade-off "linking Iran's illegal nuclear program with pressure on Israel to abandon its deterrent."

Jon Wolfsthal of the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told AFP in a telephone interview that ElBaradei has "been talking a lot about Iran and now he has to work the other side."

He described the mission as a "political balancing" act.

ElBaradei had said: "I think the message we need at the end of the day is to rid the Middle East of all weapons of mass destruction. Israel agrees with that. They say that has to be in the context of a peace agreement."

ElBaradei said that rather than waiting there should be a "parallel dialogue on security and... the peace process. I don't think you'll have peace without people understanding what sort of security structure you will have."

IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said it would be ElBaradei's first trip to Israel in six years and that he would be carrying out his mandate from the 137-member agency "to promote non-proliferation and a nuclear weapon-free zone in the Middle East."

India and Pakistan, two other relatively new nuclear powers, have also refused to sign the NPT, while long-established nuclear states China, Britain, France, the United States and Russia are founding members of the treaty.

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