UN nuclear chief urges new rules to fight spread of weapons of mass destruction

Declaring that nuclear proliferation is now “a different ball game” in which “either we all will win or everybody would lose," the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency has called for international cooperation to devise new rules to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

"The non-proliferation regime right now is absolutely under growing stress,” Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said at the end of a three-day visit to Washington yesterday, during which he conferred with President George W. Bush and other top United States officials.

“We are facing now the threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction which is everybody's fight," Mr. ElBaradei said in an interview on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television.

“What we have seen with A.Q. Khan associates, the black market, what we have seen with some of the Al-Qaida people interested in nuclear weapons, makes it clear that this is a different ball game and we have to revise the rules, and that really was the focus of my discussion with President Bush yesterday,” he added, referring to the Pakistani scientist blamed for the spread of nuclear technology to other countries.

"I think the message I'm getting from Washington this week (is) that we really need to put our heads together, not just the US and IAEA, but everybody in the international system.”

Drawing an analogy with the fight against terrorism, he said defeat would spell widespread doom. “It's either we will win or everybody would lose.”

Calling on the international community to look at the big picture, Mr. ElBaradei declared: “There's a lot of measures we need to take, control of the nuclear material, better export control, better authority for the Agency, less countries having enrichment and reprocessing."