"I think this is an important goal for everyone to have in the world, but I think that it's a long road to get there," he told CNN.

"President Obama is the fourth president that I have worked for who has said publicly he would like to see an end to nuclear weapons and (have) a nuclear weapons-free world. I think that's a laudable objective," Gates said.

But the US defense chief said any such move would be as the result of gradual and labored disarmament efforts.

"It's a goal that you have to move toward step by step," Gates said.

Obama made his call for a nuclear-free world last month in Strasbourg, France, on the margins of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, when he announced his intention week to "seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons."

Gates noted Sunday that "we have had a number of countries forego nuclear weapons, countries that ... really voluntarily walked away from them: South Africa, Libya, Taiwan, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil.

"So total pessimism with respect to nonproliferation, I think, is unwarranted."

But he said the spread around the world of nuclear know-how will make it difficult to ever fully eradicate such weapons.

"How do you deal with the reality of that technology being available to almost any country that seeks to pursue it?" Gates told CNN.

"And what conditions do you put in place, what UN verification measures or IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) verification measures do you put in place, to prevent others from getting that?"

Still, Gates said, the United States should continue ongoing proliferation efforts, including talks on a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and negotiations with Russia on new post-START talks aiming to reduce the US-Russia nuclear stockpile.

"These are all important steps in that direction. But my guess is, it's a long march," he said.

earlier related report
Nuclear weapons still an 'apocalyptic threat:' UN chief
New challenges that have emerged on the world stage, such as the economic crisis and the swine flu, must not overshadow nuclear disarmament efforts, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned on Monday.

"Nuclear weapons remain an apocalyptic threat," he told a preparatory session for a nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) conference scheduled for May 2010 in New York.

"We cannot afford to place disarmament and non-proliferation on a backburner."

The last such conference, which gathers NPT signatory states and seeks to rescue the treaty from charges it has become obsolete, ended in disarray in May 2005 with no agreement from the participating countries.

The conferences have been held every five years since the NPT was ratified in 1970.

Ban attributed the failure of the 2005 conference to how "for too long, the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation agenda has been stagnating in a Cold War mentality."

But he said he was "particularly encouraged" by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his US counterpart Barack Obama's pledge to take measures to reduce their nuclear stockpiles by seeking a successor agreement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) by the time it expires in December.

"On Iran, I encourage the country's leaders to continue their cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) with a view to demonstrate the entirely peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program," Ban said.

He also called on North Korea to join six-party nuclear disarmament talks, which he called "the best mechanism to achieve the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in a peaceful manner."

The six-nation talks have been deadlocked since North Korea threatened to conduct a second nuclear test and ballistic missile tests, and announced it was pulling out of the talks.

Looking to the 2010 conference, the UN chief urged all nations to "end the stalemate that has marked the international disarmament machinery for too long.

"To strengthen the NPT regime, it is essential that the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty enters into force without further delay, and that the Conference on Disarmament begins negotiations on a verifiable fissile material treaty," he said.

Ban expressed hope that the week-long preparatory session would produce agreements on key procedural matters and issue concrete recommendations for the conference next year.

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