Barack Obama warns of increased nuclear terror threat | ||
US President Barack Obama has warned a gathering of world leaders in Washington of an increased risk of a nuclear attack by terrorists. Mr Obama said the risk of a nuclear attack had "gone up" as groups such as al-Qaeda tried to acquire material for a nuclear weapon. His comments marked the formal opening of a major summit on nuclear security. Mr Obama urged leaders not merely to talk, but to act to prevent nuclear material falling into the wrong hands. He also announced the next nuclear security summit would be held in South Korea in 2012. On Monday, the US welcomed a pledge by Ukraine to eliminate its stockpile of highly enriched uranium by 2012. However, France's leader stressed his country could not give up its own nuclear weapons. New nuclear policy The two-day summit is the biggest international meeting hosted by the US since 1945. It is taking place without representatives of Iran and North Korea, neither of whom were invited by the US because of the disputes over their nuclear programmes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dropped plans to attend the summit, reportedly because of concern that Muslim states planned to press for Israel to open its own nuclear facilities to international inspection. It is estimated there are about 1,600 tonnes of highly enriched uranium in the world - the type used in nuclear weapons. Experts agree that virtually all of it is held by the acknowledged nuclear-weapons states, most of it in Russia. Last week, the US and Russia signed a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, reducing each country's deployed nuclear arsenal to 1,550 weapons. Mr Obama has also approved a new nuclear policy for the US, saying he plans to cut the nuclear arsenal, refrain from nuclear tests and not use nuclear weapons against countries that do not have them.  Ads by Google
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Tuesday, April 13, 2010
President Obama Warns Of Increased Threat Of Nuclear Terrorism
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