U.N. chief seeks global talks to curb nuclear arms

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Tuesday for countries to exploit greater political will to launch global negotiations to curb nuclear weapons.

In a speech to the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament, Ban said a draft proposal to start negotiations on fissile material at the same time as talks related to preventing an arms race in outer space, "can achieve consensus."

"There are now a number of initiatives from nuclear and non-nuclear states that together provide a new momentum for disarmament," Ban told the Geneva forum.

"These signs of greater political will represent an opportunity we cannot afford to miss."

Diplomats hope that the new U.S. administration will offer initiatives to revive the moribund conference. President Barack Obama has called for a world without nuclear weapons.

Ban specifically welcomed efforts to revive negotiations to ban production of fissile material such as plutonium and highly-enriched uranium used in making nuclear weapons.

The latest proposal from the current Algerian conference president includes an inspection mechanism to check against cheating on the so-called fissile "cut-off" treaty.

"This is an important step forward," Ban said.

Under President George W. Bush the United States had opposed efforts to include a verification regime. But Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged at a London summit in April to work toward negotiations on a verifiable fissile pact.

"Now is the time to break more than 10 years of stalemate," Ban said.

The 65-member-state forum has failed to clinch any pacts since its international treaties banning chemical weapons and underground nuclear explosions in the 1990s.

Its members include the five official nuclear weapon powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- as well as nuclear-capable India and Pakistan, and Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arms.

Algerian foreign minister Mourad Medelci said in a speech that he hoped for a consensus to emerge at the talks, adding: "The conditions have never been as encouraging."

Swiss foreign minister Micheline Calmy-Rey said: "This is a moment of hope, as it appears we are on the verge of the breakthrough that has been eagerly awaited for several years.