VIENNA - UN nuclear watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei on Thursday backed a call by US President George W Bush for tighter controls to curb smuggling of atomic technology and equipment but criticized the United States for dragging its feet on nuclear disarmament.

ElBaradei also differed with Bush by saying the production of nuclear fuel should be under multinational control, rather than limited to a few nations.

"I have the same concern and sense of urgency expressed by President Bush to shore up the non-proliferation regime and global security system," ElBaradei said in a statement released at the Vienna headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA, the UN body that monitors compliance with international non-proliferation safeguards, needs "additional authority," he said.

In Washington, Bush sought worldwide support Wednesday for tighter curbs on nuclear know-how, taking aim at North Korea, Iran, and black-market sales by Pakistan's former top atomic expert.

"With deadly technology and expertise going on the market, there's the terrible possibility that terrorist groups could obtain the ultimate weapons they desire most," Bush said in the election-year speech.

Personal capacity

Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri reacted by calling for cooperation between nuclear states to prevent criminal groups getting their hands on nuclear weapons.

Kasuri repeated Pakistan's claim that it was not involved in nuclear proliferation and that scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan (photo) had acted in a personal capacity and not on behalf of his country when he had leaked nuclear secrets.

India's foreign ministry said Thursday: "It is clear that the existing non-proliferation order is inadequate."

But Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi rejected Bush's charge that Malaysia was involved in black market nuclear proliferation.

"We are not in any way involved," Abdullah told a news conference.

Bush had said in his speech that centrifuge parts for Libya's nuclear weapons uranium-enrichment programme were manufactured in Malaysia.

ElBaradei pressed his point in an opinion piece in The New York Times on Thursday, warning: "Nuclear proliferation is on the rise."

"There is a sophisticated worldwide network that can deliver systems for producing material usable in weapons," he wrote.

"Inevitably, terrorists will gain access to such materials and technology, if not actual weapons. If the world does not change course, we risk self-destruction."

21st-century realities

In the article, ElBaradei repeated a call for the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which since 1970 has mandated the IAEA to carry out verification activities, to "be tailored to fit 21st-century realities."

His call came amid reports that IAEA inspectors in Iran had found blueprints for an advanced-type centrifuge that Tehran had failed to declare while claiming to provide full disclosure on its atomic program.

Diplomats in Vienna said the IAEA had used revelations made in dismantling Libya's atomic program to guide them to what the Iranians had.

ElBaradei proposed tightening "controls over the export of nuclear material" and joined Bush in calling for the additional protocol to the NPT that grants IAEA inspectors the right to make unannounced and wider inspections to be in force for all UN members.

But he criticized the United States implicitly when he said: "We must abandon the unworkable notion that it is morally reprehensible for some countries to pursue weapons of mass destruction yet morally acceptable for others to rely on them for security and indeed to continue to refine their capacities and postulate plans for their use."

ElBaradei said: "A clear road map for nuclear disarmament should be established, starting with a major reduction in the 30,000 nuclear warheads still in existence, and bringing into force the long-awaited Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty."

Multinational control

The adminstration of former US president Bill Clinton signed the CTBT in 1996, but Bush has made clear that he has no intention of asking Congress to ratify it.

Bush had stopped short of calling for an end to all trade in nuclear fuel, saying he wanted to limit shipments "to any state that does not already possess full-scale, functioning enirchment and reprocessing plants."

ElBaradei called for multinational control of nuclear fuel so that a central multinational authority would distribute fuel, stopping international trade that can lead to smuggling and excesses. -AFP