ElBaradei "wanted to show he hadn't forgotten the other issues in the Middle East," while his International Atomic Energy Agency probes US and Israeli charges that Iran is hiding a nuclear weapons program, Avner Cohen, a US-based analyst who is currently in Jerusalem, told AFP.

Jon Wolfsthal of the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace had told AFP as ElBaradei's visit began Tuesday that the IAEA chief 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 to convince the Arab world that the IAEA is fair.

The Israelis, who refuse to say whether or not they have nuclear weapons, "want to show they have friendly relations with the agency," Cohen said.

The result is that "it was ceremonial" for ElBaradei to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Thursday, Cohen said. "I don't think there was any substance."

Sharon said he is open to discussions on ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons as part of future peace talks, ElBaradei said Thursday.

Israel had previously said it would not discuss security issues, such as a nuclear-weapons-free zone, until there was a comprehensive peace settlement.

It was not clear how much Sharon's statement Thursday represented a change in policy since the premier set no timeframe for Israel to back off on its refusal to discuss security issues while it faces continuing attacks by Palestinian militant groups and hostility from Iran.

The Middle East peace process remains stalled amid persistent violence.

Most foreign experts believe Israel possesses up to 200 nuclear warheads, although it has stuck for the past 40 years to a policy of "strategic ambiguity" of neither confirming nor denying its arsenal.

ElBaradei had come to Israel urging the Jewish state to "clarify" whether it has nuclear weapons and to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treatywhich his agency oversees.

But Israel held fast to its refusal to sign up.

Gerald Steinberg, from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said there was "no foundation for a change" in Israeli nuclear policy.

He told AFP that "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."

He said Israel was particularly worried about Iran, a subject which officials here brought up repeatedly with ElBaradei.

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."

He added that a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East "however distant, will become essentially unfeasible if Iran crosses the point of no return in its development of nuclear weapons."

All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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