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Security Council may appeal to India to sign CTBT, NPT

United Nations Security Council members are considering an appeal to India to sign two major global treaties regulating nuclear weapons after the country exploded two more nuclear devices today.

The five permanent council members met yesterday to consider a draft statement, prepared by Sweden, which expressed concern over India's violation of a "de facto moratorium'' on testing since the approval by the UN general assembly of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Council diplomats said yesterday's meeting did not produce a final text. Envoys were waiting for instructions from their governments and may take up the issue today, diplomats said.

The Swedish draft would have the council appeal "to India and to all other states which have not yet done so to become parties'' to the CTBT and the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The NPT bans the spread of nuclear weapons technology beyond the five self-declared nuclear states, the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China.

Those states are also permanent Security Council members. India has opposed both the NPT and the CTBT because they contain no timetable for the five powers to dismantle their nuclear arsenals.

The draft also urges other countries to "exercise maximum restraint.'' the statement was directed primarily at Pakistan, which is among countries believed capable of building nuclear arms relatively quickly.

UNI

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