Saudi may join nuclear arms race: ex-spy chief

8220;A nuclear disaster befalling one of us would affect us all,8221; said Faisal.

Israel is widely held to possess hundreds of nuclear missiles,which it neither confirms nor denies,while the West accuses Iran of seeking an atomic bomb,a charge the Islamic republic rejects.

Riyadh,which has repeatedly voiced fears about the nuclear threat posed by Shiite-dominated Iran and denounced Israel8217;s atomic capacity,has stepped up efforts to develop its own nuclear power for 8220;peaceful use.8221;

Abdul Ghani Malibari,coordinator at the Saudi civil nuclear agency,said in June that Riyadh plans to build 16 civilian nuclear reactors in the next two decades at a cost of 300 billion riyals 80 billion.

He said the Sunni kingdom would launch an international invitation to tender for the reactors to be used in power generation and desalination in the desert kingdom.

The United Nations has imposed successive packages of sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. Those measures have been backed up by unilateral Western sanctions.