The US, Russia, Britain, France and China have voiced support for making the Middle East a nuclear weapons-free zone, which would ultimately force Israel to scrap any atomic arms it has.

The move, in a joint statement, reflected US concern to win Arab backing for sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program by offering a concession over its ally Israel, but Washington says the zone cannot be actually established yet.

"We are committed to a full implementation of the 1995 NPT resolution on the Middle East and we support all ongoing efforts to this end," the five permanent UN Security Council members said in a statement issued at a conference taking stock of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The 1995 resolution adopted by signatories of the landmark arms control treaty called for making the Middle East a zone without nuclear arms. The Jewish state has never confirmed or denied having nuclear arms.

"We are ready to consider all relevant proposals in the course of the (NPT) Review Conference in order to come to an agreed decision aimed at taking concrete steps in this direction," said the statement.

US support for the idea of creating such a zone in the future could be unwelcome to Israel, which has said it can only consider it once there is Middle East peace.

But diplomats from the Jewish state's Western allies say Arab states are pushing hard on the issue in exchange for their support in US-led efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program.

Egypt, which chairs the powerful 118-nation bloc of non-aligned developing nations, circulated a proposal to the 189 signatories of the treaty calling for a conference by next year on ridding the Middle East of nuclear arms in which all countries in the region would participate.

The US and Russia, with the support of the other three countries allowed to keep nuclear weapons under the NPT, are negotiating with Egypt to come up with an acceptable compromise proposal, Western diplomats say.

Despite US support for the principle of the proposed zone, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday that the time was not yet ripe for creating the zone.

US Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher told an audience of delegates and reporters on Wednesday it was hard to imagine negotiating "any kind of free zone in the absence of a comprehensive peace plan that is running on a parallel track."

Comprehensive negotiations

A spokeswoman for Israel's UN mission declined to comment. An Israeli diplomat said, however, that if Egypt "approach us on holding a regional conference dealing purely with the nuclear issue, they'll end up sitting there alone."

"We favor voluntary, freely negotiated and non-imposed negotiations dealing with all forms of WMDs (weapons of mass destruction), delivery systems, and other security issues," he said. "You can't single out the nuclear file from other regional security issues."

Without naming specific countries, the big-power statement also urged those outside the NPT to join it. Israel, like nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, never signed the treaty but is presumed to have a sizable atomic arsenal.

"We urge those states that are not parties to the treaty to accede as non-nuclear-weapon states and pending accession to the NPT, to adhere to its terms," the five powers said.

The statement also touched on Iran and North Korea.

"The proliferation risks presented by the Iranian nuclear program remain of serious concern to us," the five said. The five powers and Germany are negotiating on a fourth UN sanctions resolution against Iran for defying Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment.

Tehran refuses to stop enriching, saying its program is intended solely for the peaceful generation of electricity.

The statement did not mention sanctions. Russia and China, Western diplomats say, are pushing hard in negotiations to dilute the measures in a US-drafted sanctions proposal.

The five powers also called for the renewal of six-nation talks on North Korea, which withdrew from the NPT in 2003 and carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

The five official nuclear powers also reaffirmed previous disarmament commitments they made in 2000 and praised a recent US-Russian strategic arms reduction agreement.

The previous US administration infuriated Arab and other non-aligned nations by refusing to reaffirm those pledges -- and the call for a Middle East nuclear arms-free zone -- at the last NPT review conference in 2005. That conference was widely viewed as a failure. – Reuters