ElBaradei was speaking at a conference on nuclear disarmament in Berlin organised by the Social Democrats, who are partners in Germany's ruling coalition.

He said that in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the United States, extremists had become more sophisticated and were trying to lay their hands on nuclear arms.

"We have seen the interest of these groups in acquiring nuclear weapons."

ElBaradei said the nuclear arms race was still being fuelled by the fact that many nations saw such weapons as a status symbol.

"There is still an aura of power, a status of prestige that comes with nuclear weapons," he said.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that the more governments developed nuclear arms, the greater the risk would be that terrorist groups could gain access to them.

But, he said, the primary problem would be an escalation of the international nuclear arms race over the next decade, particularly if "the Iranian and North Korean nuclear crises are not resolved."

Steinmeier has lent Germany's voice to initiatives by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to resolve the standoff over Iran's nuclear programme, which the West sees as a front for a weapons drive.

"It is not about discriminating against any one country, but about preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and also about shielding Israel from any threat to its existence," he said.

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