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05/27/2005:

"Deadlock feared in nuclear treaty talks"

A global conference to review the non-proliferation treaty is due to end today, almost certainly in deadlock, jeopardising what is seen as the best chance of containing the spread of nuclear weapons.

Observers at the month-long conference in New York said there was broad agreement on how to tighten the 35-year-old treaty but substantive agreement had been blocked by hardline positions adopted by the US and Iran.

The US rejected references in any final text to the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT), which Bill Clinton was the first US president to sign, in 1996, but which was never ratified by the Senate.

The Bush administration has said it will stick to its moratorium on nuclear tests but would not accede to a global treaty outlawing them.

Iran has opposed all attempts to constrain or even mention its nuclear programme, which it says is purely for peaceful purposes but which many countries fear could be a front for a weapons programme. "Why this conference matters is that it is a chance for all the member countries to come together and breathe new life into the treaty," said Joseph Cirincione, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "What you see is that the vast majority of the countries are in basic agreement ... but they have been blocked by an uncoordinated but parallel action by the US and Iran."
Full: guardian.co.uk