WASHINGTON, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on Thursday called on nuclear powers to give up their nuclear weapons so that other nations would not seek to join the nuclear club.

    In a speech at the Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, ElBaradei warned if existing nuclear powers failed to lead by example and give up the weapons, other countries would inevitably seek to join the nuclear club.

    "Nukes breed nukes," ElBaradei said.

    He said that as long as some nations continued to insist that nuclear weapons were essential to their security, other nations would also want them.

    ElBaradei warned that the world was reaching "a fork in the road. Either we must begin moving away from a security system based on nuclear weapons, or we should resign ourselves to President (John F.) Kennedy's 1960s prediction of a world with 20 to 30 nuclear-weapon states."

    The world spent more than 1 trillion U.S. dollars on weapons and 80 billion dollars on official development aid in 2004, according to ElBaradei. Enditem