The Conference on Disarmament broke a 12-year stalemate today and adopted a work plan by consensus to include talks on the production of materials for nuclear weapons, according to dpa. The multilateral disarmament negotiating body, housed at the Untied Nations Office in Geneva, has 65 members, including all states with nuclear weapons or suspected of having them. It is the only such forum for disarmament talks. The work programme will include establishing a working group "on practical steps for progressive and systematic efforts to reduce nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal of their elimination," a statement said. A second group will negotiate a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Another group will also be established on the prevention of an arms race in outer space. The adoption of the plan was hailed by diplomats as "historic.". All five members of the UN Security Council as well as India, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea supported the work plan. North Korea has been in the spotlight after recently conducting a second nuclear test and having pulled out of negotiations on its disarmament. The conference will meet again next week to begin work on establishing the groups for the negotiations. Also next week in Geneva, the United States and Russia will hold talks on negotiating a follow-up to their Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). The cold war era treaty on nuclear-arms reduction expires in December. The renewed negotiations between the two nuclear powers was praised by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week as the first round of talks commenced in Moscow. The US, under the new administration of President Barack Obama, has been trying to "restart" its relations with Russia.
