Middle East nuclear weapons ban proposal stumbles at UN

UNITED NATIONS - A UN attempt to work out a ban on nuclear weapons in the Middle East was in jeopardy after Egypt complained on Monday about the lack of progress and demanded the resignation of the Finnish coordinator of the initiative.

Western officials said Arab proposals drafted by Egypt for a major nuclear non-proliferation conference at United Nations headquarters in New York could torpedo the process and push Israel to walk away.

Israel, which has never joined the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), agreed to take part in NPT meetings Monday as an observer, ending a 20-year absence.

The head of Egypt's delegation, Assistant Foreign Minister Hashim Badr, rejected any suggestion that Cairo was a spoiler and insisted that he wanted to move the process forward, not kill it.

"Egypt has come to New York to secure a conference (on banning nuclear weapons in the Middle East), we want a conference," Badr said in an interview. "This is a key issue for Egypt for a long time, for decades, since 1974-75."

Failure to reach an agreement at the NPT conference could kill the Middle East nuclear ban initiative, diplomats said.