DUBAI (AFP) – Hans Blix, a former UN nuclear watchdog head and chief weapons inspector in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, is to head an advisory board for the United Arab Emirates nuclear programme, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

Blix will chair the International Advisory Board, a nine-member body that will “provide the UAE nuclear programme with the expertise and knowledge of a highly select group of internationally recognised experts,” the papers said, citing a government statement.

The board to be led by the Swedish national is to meet twice a year.

Blix headed the International Atomic Energy Agency from 1981 to 1997 and was named in 2000 to run the UN commission tasked with eliminating Iraqi weapons of mass destruction after Saddam’s defeat in the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait.

The UAE in late December awarded a 20.4-billion-dollar contract for the construction of four nuclear power plants to a consortium led by South Korean firm KEPCO.