Canada has withdrawn from an effort to jump-start U.N. discussions on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation because of opposition from the United States and other major nuclear powers, a Canadian government spokesman said Thursday, according to dpa. "We withdrew our support (for the resolution) because of the lack of support from several countries, in particular the nuclear-weapon states," said Rodney Moore, a government spokesman in Ottawa, Canada. The world's known nuclear-weapon states are the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain - the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council that have veto power over U.N. resolutions. "It was clear that there was no support from the five nuclear states," Moore said. "But our withdrawal is not an indication that we have left the disarmament debate." Moore said Canada's withdrawal was a "wake-up call" for the United Nations on disarmament and non-proliferation issues. Canada worked on the resolution with Mexico, Sweden, Brazil, Kenya and New Zealand, Moore said. The proposal was aimed at reigniting the disarmament debate on issues left pending from previous conferences, including fissile material, space security and nuclear weapons, he added. --more 2328 Local Time 2028 GMT
