CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt criticised the European Union on Friday for failing to support a U.N. atomic watchdog resolution calling on all Middle East nations to renounce atomic weapons -- a clear reference to Israel's undeclared arsenal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed the resolution with a 53-2 vote on Thursday, but 47 abstentions by Western and developing states exposed reservations that the move politicised the U.N. agency's work.

The Egyptian foreign ministry signalled out EU states in its criticism for the lack of Western support for the non-binding resolution, which highlighted Arab frustration about Israel's presumed nuclear might.

"The European Union movement was a clear contradiction with the principles it claims to defend regarding nuclear disarmament and the prevention of nuclear proliferation," the official Middle East News Agency quoted a ministry statement as saying.

Israel is widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal. The Jewish state has never confirmed or denied it.

A similar resolution urging all Middle East nations to adopt IAEA safeguards on nuclear work passed overwhelmingly at last year's IAEA general assembly, with only Israel and top ally the United States opposed, as they were again on Thursday.

Egypt reintroduced the resolution this year seeking full consensus but attached two new clauses that prompted Israel to demand a vote and European, other Western and non-aligned developing nations to abstain.

One clause urged all nations in the Middle East, pending creation of a nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ), not to make or test nuclear arms or let them be deployed on their soil. The other urged big nuclear arms powers not to foil such a step.

European diplomats said their missions abstained because, while they backed universal IAEA non-proliferation controls in the Middle East, the amended resolution flouted the agency's non-political ethos and sought to isolate a member state.