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  • Obama, World Leaders Work To Stop Nuclear Spread

    OBAMA, WORLD LEADERS WORK TO STOP NUCLEAR SPREAD
    R. HURST and ANNE GEARAN

    (AP)
    12/04/10

    WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama and presidents, prime ministers
    and other top officials from 47 countries start work Monday on a
    battle plan to keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.

    Confronting what he calls the "single biggest threat to U.S.
    security," Obama is looking for global help in his goal of ensuring
    all nuclear materials worldwide are secured from theft or diversion
    within four years.

    On the eve of what would be the largest assembly of world leaders
    hosted by an American president since 1945 - the San Francisco
    conference to found the United Nations - Obama said nuclear materials
    in the hands of al-Qaida or another terrorist group "could change
    the security landscape in this country and around the world for years
    to come."

    While sweeping or even bold new strategies were unlikely to emerge
    from the two-day gathering, Obama declared himself pleased with what
    he heard in warm-up meetings Sunday with the leaders of Kazakhstan,
    South Africa, India and Pakistan.

    "I feel very good at this stage in the degree of commitment and a
    sense of urgency that I have seen from the world leaders so far on
    this issue," Obama said. "We think we can make enormous progress on
    this, and this then becomes part and parcel of the broader focus that
    we've had over the last several weeks."

    He was referring to what had gone before this, the fourth leg of his
    campaign to rid the world of nuclear weapons. The United States is
    the only country to use the weapons, two bombs dropped on Japan to
    force its surrender in World War II.

    The high-flown ambition, which the president admits will probably not
    be reality in his lifetime, began a year ago in Prague when he laid
    out plans for significant nuclear reductions and a nuclear-weapons-free
    world.

    In the meantime, he has approved a new nuclear policy for the
    United States, promising last week to reduce America's nuclear
    arsenal, refrain from nuclear tests and not use nuclear weapons
    against countries that do not have them. North Korea and Iran were
    not included in that pledge because they do not cooperate with other
    countries on nonproliferation standards.

    That was Tuesday, and two days later, on the anniversary of the Prague
    speech, Obama flew back to the Czech Republic capital where he and
    Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a new treaty that reduces
    each side's deployed nuclear arsenal to 1,550 weapons. Medvedev also
    arrives Monday to sign a long-delayed agreement to dispose of tons
    of weapons-grade plutonium from Cold War-era nuclear weapons - the
    type of preventive action Obama wants the summit to inspire.

    Obama welcomes the assembled world leaders at a Washington convention
    center late Monday afternoon, but begins the day with a morning meeting
    with Jordan's King Abdullah II, whose intelligence apparatus is deeply
    involved in the Afghan war.

    He then will sit down one-on-one with the leaders of Malaysia, Ukraine,
    Armenia and China.

    National Security Council spokesman Ben Rhodes said Obama would
    squeeze in a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    Turkey is a key NATO ally, and relations have been difficult recently,
    particularly over Iran. Rhodes said there were additional "pressing
    issues," including normalization of relations between Turkey and
    Armenia.

    Throughout the two-day gathering, Iran will be a subtext as Obama
    works to gain support for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against
    Tehran for its refusal to shut down what the United States and many
    key allies assert is a nuclear weapons program. Iran says it only
    wants to build reactors to generate electricity.

    In an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," Medvedev agreed that
    Iran's nuclear program must be watched closely, but he said sanctions
    on the regime would have to be smart and effective because they often
    don't work.

    "They should not lead to humanitarian catastrophe, where the whole
    Iranian community would start to hate the whole world," the Russian
    president said.

    He rejected the idea of imposing sanctions on Iran's petroleum
    industry.

    "I don't think on that topic we have a chance to achieve a consolidated
    opinion of the global community," Medvedev said.

    Support from Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao, who sees Obama
    privately Monday, is critical, but neither is firmly committed to a
    new sanctions regime.
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