Yemen, one of the poorest Arab countries, expressed recently readiness to join a regional nuclear energy program under consideration by neighboring Persian Gulf Arab states.

The six Persian Gulf Arab states, which include the world’s foremost energy producers; Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman, announced earlier that they seek acquiring peaceful nuclear capabilities and have already ordered a study on a possible joint atomic program.

"The countries of the region have the right to nuclear energy technology for peaceful purposes," Abdul-Rahman al-Attiya, secretary-general of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council said in a statement read at the close of a two-day Persian Gulf Cooperation Council summit.

"We in Yemen support the decision by the ... Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) to study the launch of a joint Persian Gulf program in nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," state media quoted Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh as saying.

"Yemen is ready and interested to join such a program," Saleh said.

Yemen has been in negotiations to join the PGCC, and in 2002, the council approved its request to gradually enter the PGCC once it’s implemented economic and security reforms.

The alliance said its nuclear program would only seek meeting rising energy demands.

"The higher committee ordered a PGCC-wide study to be carried out to create a joint program in nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, according to international standards and arrangements," the GCC statement said earlier this month. (Source: Aljazeera.com)