PTI
 
London, Nov 5: The spectre of a nuclear race in the Middle East is evident with six Arab states announcing their intention to embark on programmes to master atomic technology, media reports said on Sunday.

The countries involved were named by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Tunisia and the UAE have also shown interest, a report in the business weekly Middle East Economic Digest said.

All these countries want to build civilian nuclear energy programmes as they are permitted to do so under international law. But the sudden rush to nuclear power has raised suspicions that the real intention is to acquire nuclear technology which could be used for the first Arab atomic bomb, the report said.

"Some Middle East states, including Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, have shown initial interest (in using) nuclear power primarily for desalination purposes," Tomihiro Taniguch, the deputy director-general of the IAEA told the business weekly Middle East Economic Digest.

He said that they had held preliminary discussions with the governments and IAEA's technical advisory programme would be offered to them to help with studies into creating power plants.

The announcement by the six nations is a stunning reversal of policy in the Arab world, which had until recently been pressing for a nuclear free Middle East, where only Israel has nuclear weapons, the Times reported.