VIENNA - Diplomats yesterday boosted powers of the UN-funded International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to act against nations secretly developing new nuclear weapons programmes.
After four years of talks, a protocol setting out the new powers of the agency was adopted by an extraordinary meeting of the agency's board. The board is run by 35 of the 124 member-states of the agency. The talks on reform of the IAEA, which monitors observation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, began after the Gulf War of 1991.
