Non-aligned states urged to support nuclear Iran

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, normally soft-spoken and diplomatic, used his opening speech at a NAM meeting to contrast the West's tough approach towards Iran with what he described as inaction over Israel's nuclear advances.

"Allowing Israel to develop nuclear weapons with impunity -- which it does not deny -- while others in the region are prohibited from doing so, is a blatant case of double standard," he told the meeting in Malaysia's administrative capital.

"In this matter, we must recognise Iran's right to develop such technology for peaceful purposes," he added.

NAM, born in 1961 in reaction to Cold War geopolitics, accounts for two-thirds of the United Nations and includes all of Washington's most prominent adversaries, including Iran and North Korea -- two nations on President George W. Bush's "axis of evil".

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is in Malaysia to lobby for support and restated Tehran's position that it seeks to develop a peaceful nuclear-power programme, not a nuclear weapon.

"The time for double standards is over, the time of threats to other nations is over, selective approach to humanitarian issue is over, " Mottaki told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting, after Abdullah's speech.

He said the world should recognise Iran's "essential rights".

The Malaysian talks coincide with this week's meeting of major-power foreign ministers in Europe to finalise a package of incentives and sanctions aimed at giving Iran a stark choice if it continues sensitive activities such as uranium enrichment.

NAM encompasses half of the world's population and nearly 85 percent of its oil resources, but it is an unwieldy grouping which, critics say, has lost its way since the Cold War ended. Its spends a lot of time discussing ways to remain meaningful.

In discussing a draft NAM statement on Iran at the weekend, senior officials from Singapore and Jamaica, both U.S. allies, objected to some of the wording as too one-sided in favour of Iran and asked Malaysia as chair to redraft it, diplomatic sources said.

In the initial draft statement, NAM called for a balanced and even-handed approach but also urged Tehran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency to resolve it.

"Any rightful nuclear activity for peaceful purposes under the agency's safeguards does not constitute any concern," the initial draft said.

The Palestinian issue also took centre-stage at NAM, with the Malaysian leader asking the United States and other Western powers to resume aid to the Palestinian Authority, the local government inside Gaza large chunks of the West Bank.

Financial aid dried up after Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, won Palestinian elections in January.

"The leadership of Hamas must be engaged through contacts and dialogue, not shunned or ostracised and sanctioned," Abdullah said in his speech.

(Additional reporting by Vissuta Pothong)

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