While Blix hoped the WMD debate would reignite, he expressed hope for negotiations on the nuclear issues, for both Tehran and Pyongyang. He also hoped Iran would stop uranium enrichment and dropped Israel into the equation.

Blix Thursday presented United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan with a 231-page report calling for broad steps to rid the world of WMD, ranging from outlawing them completely to convening a world summit on the issue.

The report was from the Independent Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission he chaired.

A spokesman for the secretary-general called it "an important contribution to the debate on disarmament and non-proliferation" and urged the international community "to study the report and consider its recommendations."

Blix told reporters such weapons are designed to inflict "terror and panic."

Stocks of WMD remain "extraordinarily and alarmingly high," including 27,000 nuclear weapons, of which around 12,000 are still actively deployed, the report said.

Acknowledging WMD "cannot be un-invented," the report said they can be outlawed, as biological and chemical weapons already have been, and their use made unthinkable.

Meeting with reporters, the debate immediately focused on Iran, and Blix also put a spotlight on the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea.

As for nuclear talks, in the case of North Korea, Pyongyang has "been talking off and on in Beijing. It's not in the (U.N.) Security Council," Blix said. "They are talking in Beijing about it."

In the case of Iran, Security Council threats of sanctions have been voiced, he said. "Nevertheless there is more talk now and the commission endorses that approach."

Blix was asked about the so-called "carrot and stick" approach, where Iran is offered both incentives for joining in negotiations over its nuclear program and disincentives for not participating.

One proposed incentive was offering it a security umbrella.

"Of course we endorse generally the view that you must look at the security of countries, that is the incentive to go for, with nuclear weapons," Blix said, adding the quest for nuclear weapons is "usually linked to feelings that they have a perceived need to defend themselves, maybe not correct but a perceived need and you have to take away that incentive in order to get them away from the weapons."

He said, "The first line of defense against the spread of nuclear weapons is indeed to make states feel that they don't need them... the first barrier against proliferation against WMD... lies in foreign affairs, in foreign policy, not in the military."

Blix also said part of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty requires that signatories give up nuclear weapons, "then they are assured they will not be attacked by anyone."

He said Iran was described as a threat because its enrichment of uranium was seen "as a threat to the whole world, and the commission is also of the view that it would be desirable that Iran would refrain from going on with enrichment of uranium.

"But one must also try to look at the issue from the side of the Iranians," Blix said, recalling Tehran sees "130,000 American soldiers are in Iraq... American bases are in Pakistan and Afghanistan and more military activities to the north of them... so it is not inconceivable that some groups in Iran may feel that the security is being threatened."

Negotiators have to take that into consideration.

"The commission sides with the idea it is desirable to have a zone free of WMD in the Middle East and everybody votes for that, including Israel," he said.

His panel suggests a look at the two Koreas. "Neither of the two countries will... enrich uranium nor plutonium in the future. Now what about seeking similar commitments from the states in the Middle East?" Blix asked.

"We are seeking a commitment from Iran that they should not do any enrichment, but what about widening -- as we do in the Korean peninsula -- where you have a zone where all the countries commit themselves to not produce or enrich uranium and not to produce plutonium?

"Now that would mean that Iran would refrain from this. It would also mean that Israel would commit itself not to make more plutonium," he said, adding it was assumed Israel had about 200 nuclear weapons. "Other countries would be asked, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, etc., so that one would walk in the direction of a zone free of WMD rather than away from it."

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