Obama and G8

Obama plans nuclear talks to lift threat of proliferation

• G8 leaders and heads of the five fastest developing market economies greet Barack Obama in L'Aquila yesterday
• • Barack Obama has called a global summit on reducing the world's stockpile of nuclear weapons which could eventually result in Britain's Trident system being scaled back.
  • The US President told G8 leaders at their meeting in Italy yesterday that between 20 and 30 nations would be invited to the non-proliferation summit in Washington next spring. He hopes to build on his successful disarmament talks held on Monday with the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev.
  • The US-led initiative could pave the way for the world to warn Iran and North Korea that they would be treated as "pariah states" unless they stop developing nuclear weapons. The burden of proof would be on countries that are not yet members of the nuclear club to show they had not breached the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, raising the prospect of attempts to send weapons inspectors in if they refused to comply.

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