Iran and Israel in bitter clash at U.N. watchdog debate

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran demanded on Friday that U.N. inspectors visit Israel to investigate its nuclear capability while Israel accused Tehran of lying in a bitter debate at an assembly of the U.N. atomic watchdog.

The debate was sought by Arab and Islamic states after they shelved a resolution to brand Israel an atomic "threat" in the face of a likely Western maneuver to block a floor vote.

Israel is widely assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, though it has never confirmed or denied this. It is also one of just three states to shun the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, along with India and Pakistan.

Iran is under U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to halt a nuclear energy program feared by major powers to be a covert attempt to build atom bombs. Tehran's Islamist leaders have called for Israel's destruction.

At the annual assembly of the 149-member International Atomic Energy Agency, Arab countries and Iran railed at "persistent international double standards and silence" over Israeli nuclear exclusivity in the Middle East.

They repeatedly lambasted what they said was Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's admission of a nuclear arsenal in a German media interview last December. Israeli officials later denied Olmert said any such thing, tacitly or openly.

ACCUSATIONS OF LYING

"Some speakers continue to lie about the statement of the Israeli prime minister, who did not say what they say he did," said Israel Michaeli, Israeli Ambassador to the IAEA.

"Those who call for the elimination of Israel have no moral standing when they criticize Israeli policies aimed at defending Israel's very existence."

Iranian Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh said: "This is strange, the Israeli prime minister acknowledged having nuclear weapons, now we hear that this is a lie.

"The only way for the international community to know the truth is to authorize the IAEA to send inspectors to Israel and verify the truth," Soltanieh said, his voice rising.

"We are seriously concerned about possession of nuclear weapons and non-accession to NPT. Non-aligned countries representing billions of people want an end put to this matter.

"We want the IAEA to have access to Israeli nuclear facilities and report to the international community at large."

There is no chance of such an IAEA move without an Israeli invitation, inconceivable given regional hostilities.

Michaeli told the week-long assembly earlier that while a nuclear arms-free zone in the Middle East was a commendable ideal, "we can have no illusions" while some Arab neighbors continue not to recognize Israel and Iran seeks its elimination.

Arab nations say a chronic imbalance of power in the Middle East caused by Israeli nuclear might breeds instability and spurs others to seek mass-destruction weaponry. Iran says its uranium enrichment program is for electricity, not bombs.

Middle East tensions have been fraying the traditional consensus culture of the 50-year-old, Vienna-based IAEA.

Closing proceedings later on Friday, member states approved a resolution to bolster IAEA safeguards, but only by a rare roll call vote forced by Arab states in protest at the measure's lack of reference to nuclear disarmament.

They resent what they regard as the slowness of nuclear weapons states to dismantle arsenals in keeping with NPT obligations, as well as Israel's cold shoulder to the treaty.

IAEA resolutions normally pass by consensus. The safeguards measure passed 80-0 with 12 abstentions, mainly by Arab nations.