Beijing - The UN's international nuclear watchdog warned Monday of ageing nuclear facilities and a lack of oversight of nuclear installations.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said at the opening of a two-day conference on nuclear energy in Beijing that security at nuclear reactors was much better today than 10 years ago "but we still have vulnerabilities in safety as well as in security, even in countries with significant nuclear programmes."

"In some countries, we see a troubling combination of old reactors, operators which are poorly managed or underfunded, and weak regulators," ElBaradei warned.

The interest in using nuclear energy is growing worldwide with more than 60 countries, primarily developing nations, informing the IAEA that they are interested in developing their own nuclear programmes, he said.

The reasons for the higher interest in atomic energy is shrinking oil reserves, large price fluctuations for gas and oil, concerns about global warming and rising energy demand, he said at the meeting which energy ministers and other representatives from 65 countries are attending.