The 191-member UN General Assembly is expected to approve a nuclear terrorism treaty today that would oblige governments to punish those who illegally possess atomic devices or radioactive materials.
The document, the 13th anti-terrorism convention and the first completed since the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the United States, needs ratification from 22 nations to become international law.
The pact, under negotiation for seven years, will open for signature on September 14th in New York, during a high-level summit. "Nuclear terrorism is one of the most urgent threats of our time.
Even one such attack could inflict mass casualties and change our world forever," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the assembly committee that drafted the treaty.
The accord, called the Convention on the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, is meant to stop clandestine networks from using or possessing nuclear weapons. It obligates governments to prosecute or extradite individuals who possess radioactive materials or nuclear devices or those who threaten others while possessing such materials.
The text also calls for exchanges of information and assistance among governments. Russia introduced the treaty in 1998 to keep "loose nukes" from falling into the hands of terrorist groups.
At the time, Alexander Lebed, the former national security chief, said Moscow could not account for about 100 suitcase-sized nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported an increase in incidents involving illicit trafficking of nuclear or other radioactive material: 650 confirmed cases since 1993, with nearly 100 of them last year alone.
A text of the treaty was approved earlier this month by the assembly's legal committee after four nations decided to withdraw so-called "killer" amendments. Pakistan had wanted the treaty to apply to nuclear threats by governments.
Cuba proposed that it cover government armed forces. The United States had wanted to add language stating that the peaceful use of nuclear materials should not be used as a cover for weapons development, and Iran had sought amendments endorsing the free exchange of nuclear equipment and materials for peaceful purposes.