US is urged to back 2 nuclear treaties

OSLO -- Diplomats representing more than a dozen countries have urged the United States to embrace a set of proposed treaties to stem the spread of nuclear arms. They accuse Washington of backing away from a collective approach to arms control and helping to erode a three-decade framework for controlling nuclear weapons.

Meeting in the Norwegian capital over two days earlier this month, the diplomats and European, African, and Asian nuclear specialists blamed the United States' refusal to support two major treaties -- which would halt production of weapons-grade material and stop all nuclear testing -- for providing greater incentive for other nations with nuclear ambitions to cling to their weapons programs.

In the process, they said, Washington may be reinforcing Iran's and North Korea's sense that nuclear arsenals are critical to their security.

''Even as the world is witness to unflagging interest in nuclear explosives and growing proliferation . . . there is a regrettable tendency among some states to deemphasize the role of formal arms control," according to a report by the meeting's sponsor, the Norwegian Institute of Strategic Studies, which its authors acknowledged refers to the United States. ''This may serve to heighten, rather than reduce the risk" of the spread of nuclear weapons to terrorists.

At least seven nations have declared they have nuclear weapons. Among those countries, the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and France joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1970. Israel, which is believed to have joined the nuclear club in the 1960s, refused to sign the treaty. Pakistan and India declined to sign the treaty and subsequently developed nuclear weapons. Now, Iran and North Korea, which were signatories, are believed to be violating the pact and pursuing weapons covertly.

But as the treaty is set to come up for review by its 190 signatories in Austria in May, a growing number of US allies are calling on the United States to take the lead in strengthening international arms control by reversing its opposition to the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, which bans making weapons-grade materials, and to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

At the same time, they said, the United States appears to be undermining the effort to reduce the number of nuclear weapons by considering more advanced designs of its own, keeping thousands of warheads on alert, shielding facilities from international scrutiny, developing a national missile defense system that some worry could spark a new arms race with China or Russia, and keeping an estimated 400 tactical nuclear weapons in Europe while chiding the Russians for not destroying their battlefield nukes.

The US government bristles at the criticism that it is responsible for eroding international arms control, contending that it is violators of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty like Iran and North Korea and illicit nuclear sales by Pakistan's chief nuclear scientist that are most to blame.

''A gradual, step-by-step process toward nuclear disarmament is the proper and most effective course to pursue," the State Department said in a paper delivered to the conference. ''The United States is on that course and is making real strides toward that end."

The United States, officials contend, remains at the forefront of arms control. It has spent vastly more than any other country, an estimated $9 billion over the last 13 years, to help destroy nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union and has pledged billions more.

The United States has also reduced its weapons stockpile by 13,000 since 1988 and plans to cut that number to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads by 2012. Between 1994 and 1997, Washington eliminated nearly 1,000 strategic nuclear missiles and bombers. And since 1997, it has eliminated 64 heavy bombers, 150 ballistic missile silos, taken several nuclear submarines out of service, and retired and removed 37 Peacekeeper nuclear missiles, according to State Department officials.

But the Bush administration opposes the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, a measure the Clinton administration supported when it was introduced in 1993.

The treaty would bind nuclear powers to permanently halt production of highly-enriched uranium and plutonium, the material needed for a nuclear weapon.

''Fissile materials suitable for production of nuclear weapons are clearly over-produced by superpowers," said Alexander I. Nikitan, director of the Center for Political and International Studies in Moscow. ''But still [the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty] is not concluded."

The United States refuses to sign the treaty, out of fear that others will violate it, a position that seems to call into question the usefulness of any such agreement.

''The problem has been that we did an extensive review, and we do not believe that we can get adequate verification of such a treaty," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in her Jan. 18 confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Another international agreement with wide support -- the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, first proposed by President Kennedy -- was defeated by the US Senate in 1999 after it was backed by successive US presidents. The Bush administration has declined to resubmit the treaty for approval, also because it says verification would be a problem.

''The United States does not support the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and will not become a party to it," according to a State Department position paper provided to conference participants here. However, ''as a matter of policy, the United States continues to observe a nuclear testing moratorium and encourages other states not to test," the paper said.

The international specialists meeting here did not only attack the United States: Many complained that Russia and China have also violated the spirit of arms control by pursuing new types of nuclear weapons and failing to account for their arsenals. But most officials agreed that the United States wields greater influence and refuses to consider that some of its actions may be weakening global efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

Rogue nations seeking nuclear weapons ''cannot be rolled back until the [declared] nuclear weapons states roll back," said Hans Blix, the Swedish diplomat and former arms inspector who now heads the United Nations-sponsored Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission in Stockholm. The commission is preparing an exhaustive report on how to prevent nuclear terrorism in 2006.

Other diplomats emphasized that time may be running out to save global arms control.

''The nonproliferation regime is being severely tested," said Kim Traavik, a top official in the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. ''The nuclear weapons states must lead the way, reducing stocks and moving toward disarmament."

Stephan Klement, a European Union representative for nonproliferation issues, said that greater openness by the United States, Russia, and other nuclear states on their arsenals is among the most critical steps to lower other nations' desire for nuclear weapons. The fissile material and test ban treaties, he said, are two places to begin.

But Blix, recalling President Reagan's famous arms control creed of ''trust but verify," said a major problem is that ''the present [US] administration seems to say 'do not trust or verify.' "

Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.