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Brown says Britain could cut nuclear weapons

British PM says Libya offers nuclear lesson to world
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday that Libya's renunciation of weapons of mass destruction offered an "important lesson" amid fears over North Korea and Iran's nuclear ambitions. Brown was speaking to reporters at the G8 summit after his first meeting with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi. He said Libya's announcement in 2003 showed that the world must construct a "bargain or a deal or a compact" in negotiations. Group of Eight leaders meeting at their summit in Italy agreed to US President Barack Obama's proposal that a nuclear security summit should be held in Washington ahead of the planned review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Libya and South Africa have both given up nuclear programmes, Brown said, adding: "I think it's particularly important to recognise at a time when we're worried about nuclear proliferation particularly in Iran and Korea that two countries that might have become nuclear weapons states have given up the opportunity to do so, even though they probably had access to the technology that was necessary. "I think this is an important lesson to the world that we have got to construct a bargain or a deal or a compact between non-nuclear states and nuclear states." Brown added: "If some countries who might have been able to become nuclear weapons states have been prepared to renounce them like Libya... then it is possible for other states to be part of the international community... but also be states that want civil nuclear power but not to have nuclear weapons."
by Staff Writers
 L'Aquila, Italy (AFP) July 10, 2009
 Prime Minister Gordon Brown says Britain could reduce its nuclear arsenal as part of a global disarmament deal to persuade Iran and North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Speaking to reporters at the G8 summit in Italy, Brown said Britain may reduce its warhead numbers in return for Tehran and Pyongyang abandoning nuclear programmes.

But he stressed Britain had no plans to unilaterally abandon its 160-warhead Trident arsenal or scrap plans to replace the fleet of submarines that act as its platform.

"Iran is attempting to develop a nuclear weapon, Korea is attempting to develop a nuclear weapon," he told reporters Thursday.

"We've got to show we can deal with this by collective action and I think unilateral action by the United Kingdom would not be seen as the best way forward.

"What you need is collective action by the nuclear weapons powers to say that we are prepared to reduce our nuclear weapons but we need assurances also that other countries will not proliferate them."

Brown -- who first offered to negotiate on Trident as part of international talks in March -- gave no details of the size of any cut in the British deterrent.

He also said that in future, he would like to see a nuclear policing regime where "the onus will be on the countries that don't have nuclear weapons to prove they don't have nuclear weapons."

Group of Eight leaders meeting at their summit in Italy agreed to US President Barack Obama's proposal that a nuclear security summit should be held in Washington ahead of the planned review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

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NUKEWARS
NATO urged to drop dependence on nuclear arms
 Brussels (AFP) July 7, 2009
 The head of the UN nuclear watchdog urged NATO nations Tuesday to end their dependence on nuclear weapons, as the military alliance launched a re-think of its future direction. "You have to decrease heavily your reliance on nuclear weapons," the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed El Baradei told NATO officials and experts in Brussels. He said that by relying on a ... read more






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