GERMANY:Germany has proposed setting up a UN-monitored uranium enrichment facility to resolve the nuclear disputes with Iran and North Korea.
Foreign minister Frank Walter Steinmeier made the suggestion as world diplomats met in Vienna for two weeks of negotiations aimed at renewing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by 2010.
The NPT entered force in 1970 with the aim of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and today has 187 signatories, including five nuclear powers.
"It's not just about bringing Iran and North Korea away from building or using atomic weapons," Mr Steinmeier wrote in the Handelsblatt daily. "One has to find ways so that every state can use nuclear energy peacefully without making a grab for the bomb possible."
He suggested that the UN's nuclear watchdog, the independent and neutral International Atomic Energy Agency would be the most appropriate authority to administer a uranium enrichment facility and suggested that this measure be included in the revised NPT.
The facility could be based in any country with nuclear facilities, he said, but would operate on an "ex-territorial" basis like the UN headquarters in New York.
Enriched uranium could then be distributed to countries as requested. The actual enrichment could be done by an international consortium, he said.
"We have a purely commercial operation in mind," wrote Mr Steinmeier. "Certainly there will be interested parties for it, as enrichment is profitable."
He said that Germany was not interested in getting further involved in the nuclear energy business - it is currently running down its nuclear plants - but "has to deal with the fact that a series of other other countries, particularly in the ambitious new industrial countries".
The meeting in Vienna began with Iran accusing the US and other nuclear powers of being the world's real nuclear threats.
Even before the meeting got under way, Iranian representatives opposed the wording of the agenda which calls for "the need for full compliance with the treaty".
"We cannot go along with this kind of agenda," said Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate, to journalists, adding that the agenda "highlights a particular position". Other officials said the agenda was a "provocation".
Other countries said they were surprised by the remarks of Iranian officials; Tehran has always maintained that its nuclear enrichment activities are in compliance with the NPT.
They say their enriched uranium is for energy production, while western powers worry it is destined for nuclear bombs.