Ammon News - By Edith M. Lederer

AMMONNEWS (AP) - UNITED NATIONS – President Barack Obama urged delegates at a U.N. meeting to strengthen the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty so it can deal with the threats of nuclear terrorism and the spread of nuclear weapons.

Obama's message was read Tuesday at a meeting to lay the groundwork for a 2010 conference to review the treaty and comes after his pledge last month in Prague to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons.

The pledge won praise Monday from China and developing countries, and spurred hope that the new U.S. policy and new U.S.-Russian cooperation will end a long deadlock on global disarmament efforts.

In Tuesday's message, Obama called for dialogue to overcome differences among the parties to the treaty to ensure that it remains the cornerstone of global disarmament and nonproliferation efforts and "continues to make an enduring contribution to international peace and security."

The last NPT review conference in 2005 failed to make substantive progress because of bickering over procedural issues and underlying disagreements between countries that do and don't possess nuclear weapons.

Rose Gottemoeller, a U.S. assistant secretary of state who heads the American team negotiating arms reductions, read Obama's message and said the U.S. wants a review process with balanced emphasis on the treaty's three pillars — disarmament, nonproliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

The NPT requires signatory nations not to pursue nuclear weapons in exchange for a commitment by the five nuclear powers — the U.S., Russia, Britain, France and China — to move toward nuclear disarmament.

It also gives all treaty members the right to develop peaceful programs to produce nuclear power.

"We must strengthen the NPT to deal effectively with the threat of nuclear weapons and nuclear terrorism," Obama said. "Action is needed to improve verification and compliance with the NPT and to foster the responsible and widest possible use of nuclear energy by all states."

In a joint declaration on April 1, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered negotiators to start work on a new treaty to reduce their nuclear stockpiles as a first step toward "a nuclear-weapon-free world."

Gottemoeller said she and her Russian counterpart would hold a second meeting in Moscow after the U.N. meeting ends.

And she pledged her "best efforts" to meet the goals set by the U.S. and Russian leaders to report on progress by July and to reach agreement before the current strategic arms-control treaty expires in December.

She said there are currently 190 countries that are parties to the NPT and the U.S. is encouraging the three holdouts — India, Pakistan and Israel — to join the treaty, and North Korea to come back.