Australia has set up a new body for nuclear disarmament, hoping to recruit «like-minded countries» to strengthen the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the prime minister said Monday. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the Nuclear Nonproliferations and Disarmament Commission during a visit to Japan, after laying a wreath in Hiroshima, site of the world's first nuclear bombing. «Hiroshima should cause the world community to resolve afresh that all humankind must exert their every effort for peace in this 21st century, » Rudd was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. He made these remarks in a speech at a Kyoto university. «There are two courses of action available to the community of nations: to allow the NPT to continue to fragment, or to exert every global effort to restore and defend the treaty, » Rudd said. The 190-nation Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was established in 1980 to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and technology and to further the goal of nuclear disarmament. Review conferences are held every five years to assess implementation of the treaty. «The objective is to take the work already done ... and to seek to shape a global consensus in the lead-up to the NPT review process in 2010,» Rudd told reporters in Kyoto after he announced the commission during a speech at a University. Rudd said the Australia-led commission _ which he hoped other countries would join _ would present recommendations to an international conference of experts at the end of 2009.
