The signing at a meeting of the 35-nation board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ends months of haggling over Saudi Arabia signing a Small Quantities Protocol (SQP), an arrangement in effect since 1971 to reduce inspections in nations with small nuclear programs.

Saudi Arabia, a key state in the tense Middle East, is not believed to be a direct nuclear proliferation threat, but diplomats were seeking to calm fears amid a major test of wills with nearby Iran, which US officials suspect of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

There have also been reports -- denied by the Saudis -- that in a crisis they could use their financial clout to get nuclear technology, or even weapons, from countries such as Pakistan, which does have nuclear arms.

The SQP allows states to be exempted from requirements to notify the IAEA of stocks of natural uranium of up to 10 tonnes.

This means that once the states -- Saudi Arabia is the 87th to sign the protocol -- provide inventory statements making them eligible for the SQP, inspections are "held in abeyance," an IAEA official told AFP.

But 10 tonnes of natural uranium is still enough to make enough enriched uranium to produce at least one atom bomb.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said here Tuesday that the SQP had now been identified "as a weakness of the safeguards system" of agency inspections.

The IAEA board debated Thursday the possibility of rescinding the SQP, in effect since 1971, but put off any action until at least the next board meeting in September.

US representative George Glass told the board the United States excused itself for any misundertanding as Washington had no intention to "single out" Saudi Arabia and was disappointed about press reports implying this, a diplomat who attended the closed-door meeting told AFP.

Glass said the IAEA had "pointed out earlier this year that the current SQP suffers from serious weaknesses that need to be corrected.

"We are therefore somewhat reluctant to approve additional SPQ's that contain this flaw," Glass said, adding that Washington felt however that states that have negotiated in good faith "should not be penalized for the fact that their SQP came to us for approval at this time."

But Glass warned: "We cannot continue to approve such flawed SQP's indefinitely."

Saudi Arabia has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that mandates IAEA safeguards inspections but had resisted signing a safeguards agreement.

Egyptian ambassador Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy told AFP: "I wish countries would be as enthusiastic about requiring the Israelis to sign the NPT as they are about getting more (inspections) from the Saudis."

Israel, which is believed to have some 200 atomic bombs, refuses to sign the NPT.

Saudi Arabia last weekend turned down a European Union request, backed by similar entreaties from the United States and Australia, to allow full IAEA inspections.

Riyadh said it would only agree to this if other countries exempted under the SQP did the same, EU diplomats said.

Saudi Arabia said this week in a letter to ElBaradei that "there are no nuclear materials in installations in the kingdom as defined in the safeguards," according to a diplomat who read the text to AFP.

The diplomat said Saudi Arabia only had a cyclotron for making radioactive isotopes for medical use.

The diplomat said the Saudis were clearly trying to "be a good guy" internationally, as shown in their holding municipal elections recently in an effort to promote democracy.

"They're doing what they're asked to do" the diplomat said about Saudi willingness to sign the SQP, which functions as a safeguards agreement.

"They don't have much more leeway to give," the diplomat added.

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