L’Aquila, July 09: US President Barack Obama is planning a top-level summit in March next year in Washington to discuss nuclear security, broadcaster CNN reported Thursday.
Obama reportedly made his suggestion to other world leaders during a dinner Wednesday night at the G8 summit of industrialised nations in the Italian city of L’Aquila.
During the president’s visit to Russia earlier in the week, he had also mentioned a conference on the threat posed by the proliferation on nuclear materials.
The summit is also likely to focus on Iran’s disputed nuclear programme.
On Wednesday G8 leaders endorsed calls by Obama for a world without nuclear weapons.
“We are all committed to seeking a safer world for all and to creating the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons, in accordance with the goals of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” G8 leaders said in a joint statement.
The heads of state and government of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States welcomed Obama’s recent announcement to seek ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.
As at the last G8 summit a year ago in Japan, the leaders expressed deep concern at the threat of terrorists acquiring weapons of mass destruction, warning that the proliferation of such weapons and their means of delivery “continues to represent a global challenge and a major threat to international security.”
Obama first spoke of his vision of a nuclear-free world during his first visit to Europe as president in early April.
In separate declarations, G8 leaders condemned North Korea’s latest nuclear tests and urged Iran to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency on its nuclear programme.
—–Agencies