AMMAN, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Mohamed ElBaradei, visiting Director-General of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), promised on Sunday that his agency was ready to help Jordan to benefit from nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

    In this regard, the IAEA would dispatch a team to Jordan next week to discuss the details of the nuclear project, said a statement released by the royal court after a meeting between ElBaradei and Jordan's King Abdullah II.

    "Jordan, which adopts a moderate policy, will provide an example in the region for the exploitation of nuclear know-how for peaceful uses," the IAEA chief was quoted as saying by the statement.

    According to the statement, Jordan's King Abdullah, meanwhile, promised to ElBaradei that Jordan, as a member of the IAEA and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, "will set a model for others in the peaceful use of nuclear energy."

    The kingdom "will seek to acquire nuclear energy in line with international standards and laws related to the use of nuclear energy", said the king, reiterating Jordan's call for freeing the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction that threatens security and stability of the region.

    Jordan has had an ambition to set up a nuclear plant by 2015 to generate electricity, as well as the use of nuclear technology in education and to desalinate water for the largely desert kingdom.

    Earlier this month, Jordanian Energy Minister Khaled Sharida said that the kingdom had intended to operate its first reactor for the purpose of energy production in 2015.

    The nuclear power would be used to generate electricity and desalinate water "to ensure a better future and achieve continuous development" for the country, which lies in a desert region and suffers from a severe energy shortage, the official said.

    Jordan imports 95 percent of its energy needs and is one of the10 most water-impoverished countries in the world, with its annual water deficit exceeding 500 million cubic meters, according to official estimates.

    It was reported that ElBaradei will visit an IAEA-funded international research facility south of Amman.

    Maher Hijjazin, director of Jordan's Natural Resources Authority, has revealed that the kingdom has "tens of thousands of tons" of uranium reserves, which "you don't need that much for powering nuclear plants."

    Jordan's peaceful nuclear ambition is part of a regional dream of the so-called "Mideast nuclear-power club", while Egypt and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have repeatedly voiced their intention to obtain nuclear energy for peaceful uses.

    In the 19th summit meeting in Riyadh in late March, Arab leaders issued two resolutions on expanding use of peaceful nuclear technology in the various domains and establishing joint Arab ventures in various scores, particularly in the energy and water desalination spheres.

    IAEA chief ElBaradei has defended the regional countries' right to nuclear energy and dismissed doubts raised by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in December on the motives for the nuclear plan in a region rich in oil and gas.

    After a meeting with GCC chief Abdulrahman al-Attiyah in Riyadhon Thursday, ElBaradei told a press conference that "it is a natural right for the GCC countries to possess nuclear energy in order to use it for peaceful purposes."

    Although the Arab leaders again and again stated that they try to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and "the peaceful use of nuclear energy is the right of every country", the international community has been worrying about it with questions.

    The world has asked: What is behind the "Mideast nuclear-power club"? Is it simply an energy phobia that is driving nations towards nuclearization, or is it a reaction to Israel's military nuclear capability and a reaction to the Iranian nuclear program?

    "Intentions across the region are, for the moment, peaceful. But the decision to go nuclear could prove disastrous if countries start to consider military options," warned a university professor named Jalil Roshandel.