Vienna  - Arabic states have filed charges with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, that Israel used weapons in its recent offensive in the Gaza Strip containing ed partially-enriched uranium, an official said Tuesday evening.

A letter containing the complaint was received by the IAEA on Monday, the IAEA spokesman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in Vienna.

The complaint letter was delivered to IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei by the Saudi Arabian ambassador. Partially enriched uranium is often used in munitions because it is especially hard.

IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the agency had not yet decided how to proceed with the complaint.

The Palestinian Authority is not a member of the IAEA because of its unresolved legal status. Earlier studies by nuclear experts concluded that, at least during the Balkans wars of the 1990s, use of such substances did not carry a higher cancer risk. (dpa)