VIENNA, July 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed El Baradei will go to Israel Tuesday over its nuclear programs to which the Jewish country has applied a policy of "strategic ambiguity," said an IAEA official.

    During his visit, Baradei is expected to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and some other senior officials to try to make breakthroughs on the matter. It is the first visit by El Baradei, the IAEA director general, since 1998.

    Under its policy of strategic ambiguity, Israel neither admits nor denies having nuclear weapons. But the international communityassumed that it might have them.

    According to IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky, El Baradei's visit is part of routine, and he intended "to promote the concept of a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East."

    "We need ... to rid the Middle East of all weapons of mass destruction," El Baradei said recently.

    Israel has expressed its agreement to this point. Enditem