Summit seeks countries' compliance on nuclear mandate

Years after a six-month deadline passed, dozens of nations, including uranium producers, remain potential weak links in the global defense against nuclear terrorism, ignoring a UN mandate on laws and controls to foil this ultimate threat.

Niger, a major uranium exporter, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the source of the uranium for the first atomic bomb, are among the states falling short in complying with Security Council Resolution 1540, a key tool in efforts to block nuclear proliferation.

President Barack Obama, who calls nuclear terrorism "the most immediate and extreme threat to global security," will host a summit on nuclear security April 12-13 in Washington, where implementation of Resolution 1540 will be high on the agenda.

Twenty-nine nations have failed to report they have taken action on nuclear security as required by the 2004 resolution. Among the more than 160 governments that have reported, the information supplied is often sketchy.

Resolution 1540, which set a reporting deadline of October 2004, "imposes strict reporting requirements on states, but few have fully met them," the International Commission on Nonproliferation and Nuclear Disarmament, a prestigious study group, concluded in its final report last December.

Mexican UN Ambassador Claude Heller, chairman of the UN committee monitoring 1540's implementation, said he plans a series of meetings with noncompliant states to urge cooperation, and he sees Obama's summit as a chance to "send a strong message" about the UN mandate's importance.

Resolution 1540, promoted by the United States after the 9/11 terror attacks and the 2004 uncovering of the Pakistan-based A.Q. Khan nuclear smuggling network, is the only global legal instrument designed to disrupt links between terrorists and nuclear technology.