Vienna - Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Saturday called on Middle Eastern nations to take steps towards establishing a region free of nuclear weapons.

Delegates at the nuclear watchdog's annual general conference in Vienna adopted a resolution calling on all states in the region to accept IAEA inspections, and to accede and adhere to the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which bans the development of nuclear arms.

Ankara - The outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) launched a heavy attack on Turkish border posts that left 38 dead, Turkey's military leadership said Saturday in Ankara.

The PKK launched the attack from northern Iraq, the military said, adding that 15 Turkish soldiers and 23 PKK fighters were killed in the attack.

Two soldiers were unaccounted for.

The attack took place on the Aktutun border post in the south- eastern province of Hakkari.

New York, Oct. 3: A leading Iranian nuclear envoy has suggested that his country could reconsider its uranium enrichment program if it gets cast-iron guarantees of regular international fuel supplies for its nuclear power plants.

"We are going to continue as long as there is no legally binding internationally recognized instrument for assurance of supply," said Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, the chief Iranian delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

However, he declined to clarify whether that meant that Iran would halt its enrichment program in return for such international guarantees, suggesting it might have to continue at a diminished level in case the outside supply stops.

Washington/Tel Aviv - The United States has transferred to Israel a high-powered radar system that will improve Israel's reaction time to a possible Iranian missile strike, the Defense News magazine reported over the weekend.

Quoting US and German sources, the magazine said that more than one dozen aircraft transferred the X-band radar system and some 120 supporting personnel and equipment to Israel on September 21.

The high-powered, high-frequency system is designed to detect and track ballistic missiles soon after launch and can track an object the size of a baseball from 4,700 kilometres away.

Ramallah  - The military wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement on Saturday claimed responsibility for wounding an Israeli settler in a West Bank shooting.

The settler was slightly wounded Saturday morning when his car came under fire near Alei Zahav settlement to the south of Qalqilya city, according to Israeli sources.

In a statement sent to the media, Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades said the attack was in response to the frequent Israeli army raids in the West Bank.

The group vowed to carry out more armed attacks against "the Israeli occupation forces and the settlers" if the Israeli raids continued.

London, Sept. 25 : The international Quartet – consisting of the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia – is being accused of creating a "vacuum of leadership" as the aid agencies complain that "visible progress" in the Middle East has "failed to materialise".

The report referred to by The Independent, says that despite the Quartet saying in June that such progress was vital to building confidence in the negotiating process, it has failed to press home its own calls on Israel for a freeze on settlement building, an improvement in the movement of Palestinian people and goods, and a revival of the collapsed economy in Gaza.