The UN atomic watchdog has unanimously called for a nuclear-weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East but rejected an Arab call to denounce Israel as a nuclear threat. A general conference of the 139-nation International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday in Vienna also unanimously passed a resolution welcoming North Korea's agreement to abandon nuclear weapons and called upon Pyongyang to let IAEA inspectors back into the country. The IAEA conference rejected discussion of "Israeli nuclear capabilities and threat," as proposed in a resolution by Oman, despite a strong push for this by 15 Arab states plus Palestine.Israel welcomed the idea of such a zone but said it advocates "achieving regional peace and security not arms control per se," in comments by Israeli atomic energy chief Gideon Frank. Egyptian ambassador Ramzy Ezzeldeiin Ramzy told the IAEA conference that the resolution on a NWFZ invites Israel, believed to be the only nuclear weapons state in the Middle East, "to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and to accept that its various facilities be subject to the IAEA safeguards system." Israel has not signed the NPT and neither confirms nor denies reports that it has some 200 atom bombs. Frank said that while Israel felt a NWFZ "could eventually serve as a complement to overall efforts to peace and security in the region" the Jewish state wanted a general peace agreement first in the Middle East.