The extent of Israel's atomic weapons programme is a mystery to the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the agency's chief said in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.
"Unfortunately I can't give a precise opinion about it because we don't do any inspections in Israel," Mohamed ElBaradei told Al Arabiya television when asked about the size of Israel's nuclear weapons programme.
"I know that it's a developed programme, and Israel does not deny that it has nuclear capability, but the size of the programme, the extent of its development, really I can't know."
Non-proliferation analysts estimate Israel has from 100 to 200 atomic weapons, but the country has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and does not confirm or deny having nuclear weapons.
"It's enough for me to know that it has nuclear capability, there is a conviction that it has a nuclear weapon," ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in the Arabic-language interview recorded in Libya on Tuesday.
The UN watchdog has long encouraged Israel to sign the NPT and help create a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. Israel has refused to consider nuclear disarmament, citing a precarious security situation.
"Israel still thinks that in the absence of complete recognition by all countries in the region it can't talk about giving up the nuclear deterrent or limiting conventional and non-conventional weapons," ElBaradei said in the interview near the end of a two-day visit to the Libyan capital Tripoli.
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