Germany must push G8 on nuclear disarmament

BERLIN, June 27: The head of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD), part of the ruling coalition, said he wants nuclear disarmament on the agenda when Berlin holds the G8 and EU presidencies next year.

''We as a government party will make certain that disarmament is on the agenda during these (G8 and EU) presidencies,'' SPD chairman Kurt Beck told an SPD conference yesterday.

''We don't want a spiralling arms race, not in individual regions or globally. That is why we are saying with emphasis that we don't want a nuclear-armed Iran,'' he said.

The SPD is in a coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives (CDU/CSU). Although the chancellor has the final say on foreign policy, the foreign ministry is in the hands of SPD member Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Germany takes over the year-long rotating presidency of the Group of Eight (G8) industrial nations from Russia in January.

It will also take over the six-month presidency of the 25-member European Union from Finland at the same time.

Four G8 members the United States, Britain, France and Russia have nuclear weapons and might not like focusing too much attention on disarmament. Canada, Japan, Germany and Italy do not have atomic weapons.

Non-proliferation experts have criticised Russia and Washington for considering new types of atomic weapons and not taking clear steps towards disarmament as they are committed to doing in the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

''I think the current conflict with Iran has made it clear that disarmament has to be on the international agenda again,'' Steinmeier told Reuters later in an interview.

Many countries believe Iran is covertly developing atomic weapons but Tehran says its programme is for peaceful purposes.

Steinmeier wants the G8 to make progress on ''internationalising the nuclear fuel cycle'' by creating multinational nuclear fuel schemes so that individual countries do not need to develop sensitive technologies like uranium enrichment, which can produce fuel for reactors or weapons.

The head of the U.N.'s Vienna-based nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, also spoke at the SPD conference and praised the initiative.

ElBaradei has also been pushing for an internationalisation of the nuclear fuel cycle.

A spokesman for Germany's defence ministry, which is led by conservative Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung, criticised Beck for announcing this before it had been approved by the cabinet.

REUTERS