"Today a new non-proliferation instrument saw the light of day: The International Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (ICOC)," Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told journalists at a conference in the Dutch capital The Hague.

"It is the first global non-proliferation instrument that specifically deals with systems capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction," he explained.

The 92 nations present at the Hague launching conference signed the code of conduct, among them all 15 EU members, plus nuclear powers Russia and the United States, though Iraq, Pakistan and India were noticably absent from the gathering.

Those countries have either been accused of building up advanced ballistic weapons programs or have developed their own missile systems.

The code of conduct is designed to ensure greater transparency on the development and testing of the powerful weapons and requires signatory states to prepare an annual report on their programs and to signal any upcoming weapons tests.

But the code is also a paper tiger, since it does not have the formal status of a treaty, includes no sanctions for countries that flaunt its rules and lacks the backing of several states armed with ballistic weapons.

"It is a first step and an important step, 92 countries is quite substantial but we miss several important countries of concern like China, India, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran," De Hoop Scheffer admitted.

He denied the code was weak because it did not lay down sanctions for non-compliance and stressed the element of peer pressure.

"I am in favour of peer pressure and I believe that in the end it will be more effective (than sanctions)," the minister said.

Other notable exceptions in signatory states included North Korea, Syria and Israel.

"At the moment they think there is not much to gain from transparency," De Hoop Scheffer explained.

Pakistan, which on Monday denied media reports it was providing military technology to North Korea in return for ballistic weapons parts, has refused to sign the ICOC document, although it took part in preparatory conferences.

The New York Times reported Saturday that Pakistan had exchanged uranium enrichment equipment for North Korean missile parts.

Iraq, where UN weapons inspectors launched their disarmament mission on Monday, was not invited to The Hague. It was the only country to be excluded outright by the organisers of the initiative.

The United Nations has ordered Baghdad to report its entire chemical, biological and nuclear arsenal to UN weapons inspectors and intends to stage a comprehensive search through the country to verify its compliance.

Capable of crossing thousands of kilometers (miles) at phenomenal speeds and carrying chemical weapons or nuclear warheads, ballistic missiles are being adopted by a growing number of countries in the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent as a powerful deterrent to attacks.

"(Ballistic missiles') rapid geographical spread, increasing range and inherent connection to weapons of mass destruction threaten regional stability and international peace and security at large," De Hoop Scheffer said.

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