Israel: During his two-day visit to Israel, which begins today, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Dr Mohammed ElBaradei, will hold talks with Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon, Foreign Minister Mr Silvan Shalom, will meet the head of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, and will discuss nuclear applications in the field of medicine with the country's health minister.
But the one thing Dr ElBaradei would like to do most, is not on his itinerary: to visit Israel's nuclear facility in the southern desert town of Dimona where, foreign reports say, the Jewish state is producing fissile material for nuclear weapons.
Although the IAEA chief views the visit itself and talks with nuclear officials here as an achievement, he will have little joy in trying to get the Jewish state to open its nuclear programme to inspection.
Israeli leaders, almost across the political spectrum, back the country's long-standing policy of "nuclear amibiguity". Israel has never denied nor confirmed its nuclear capability, although many have treated the existence of nuclear weapons in Israel as an open secret. Reports in foreign papers have estimated that Israel has up to 200 nuclear warheads.
The Israeli leader who has come closest to conceding that Israel has a nuclear capability is former prime minister Mr Shimon Peres, who was quoted as saying in 1995: "Give me peace and we'll give up the atom."
Israel still views nuclear deterrence, even if not openly declared, as its best insurance policy in a hostile neighbourhood.
Mr Peres was the one who built Israel's nuclear programme, which began in the 1950s with the plans for construction of the reactor in Dimona. The veil of secrecy that surrounds the project was breached once, in 1986, when a technician at the reactor, Mordechai Vanunu, disclosed information about the facility to the Sunday Times in Britain. Mr Vanunu was recently released from jail after serving an 18-year term for espionage and treason.
Arab countries have demanded scrutiny of Israel's nuclear programme.
But the official Israeli line on turning the Middle East into a nuclear-free zone is that Arab countries must first relinquish their stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons, and only then will Israel be willing to discuss its nuclear capacity.