Writing in the Financial Times newspaper, Mohammed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), set out a number of steps to enhance the NPT without having to rewrite it.

"Every five years, the NPT Review Conference brings world leaders together to focus on combating the threat of nuclear weapons," ElBaradei said.

"The system itself ... needs reinforcement. Some of the necessary remedies can be taken (at the conference in New York) in May, but only if governments are ready to act."

The NPT prohibits the transfer of nuclear weapons, and the technology to make them, between the 188 nations which have put their names to the treaty since 1968.

Signatory nations include the five main nuclear powers -- Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States -- but not emerging nuclear states India, Pakistan or Israel, while North Korea pulled out of the NPT in 2003.

ElBaradei's remarks appeared amid suspicions in Western capitals that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the allegation.

"With seven straightforward steps, and without amending the treaty, this conference could reach a milestone in strengthening world security," ElBaradei said in an op-ed article.

Those steps include:

-- A five-year freeze on additional facilities for uranium enrichment and plutonium separation.

-- Speeding up efforts to modify research reactions operating with highly enriched uranium that could be used to make nuclear devices.

-- Expand the authority of the NPT's so-called "additional protocol" so that the IAEA will have greater rights of inspection.

-- Call on the UN Security Council to act "swiftly and decisively" if and when a country quits the NPT.

-- Urge nations to act on a UN Security Council resolution to investigate and prosecute illicit trading in nuclear material and technology.

-- Call on the five main nuclear powers to speed up implementation of their "unequivocal commitment" to nuclear disarmament.

-- Acknowledge regional tensions in places like the Middle East and the Korean peninsula that give rise to proliferation -- leading, for example, to a dialogue to declare the Middle East a nuclear weapons free zone.

"None of these steps will work in isolation. Each requires a concession from someone," ElBaradei said.

He added: "This opportunity will come again -- in 2010 (when the next NPT Review Conference takes place). But given current trends, we cannot afford to wait another five years."

All rights reserved. � 2005 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.