Ship ban hits war on terror says US

By FRAN O'SULLIVAN assistant editor

The United States wants New Zealand to relax its ban on nuclear-propelled warships, saying US ships need the freedom to use our ports as part of the global war on terror.

Top-ranking US Government official Grant Aldonas, who is Under-Secretary of Commerce (International Trade), yesterday described the nuclear issue as an "artefact of another age".

"We need to recognise the concerns that motivated our thoughts about the actions in the mid-1980s, which came at a time when we were very much focused on the Cold War," he told an Auckland business lunch.

Although New Zealand's anti-nuclear ban did not appear to have had a "cascading effect" elsewhere, that was no longer the issue, "given that what we now confront is a war on terror, not a cold war".

Former US President George Bush snr had spelled out that US warships no longer carried nuclear arms.

Mr Aldonas later told the Herald the US regarded its Navy as "our forward defence".

"We look at the freedom of the seas and the ability to project power off our shores as being integrally related to a policy of trying to take on terrorism wherever it starts," he said.

"So the idea that there be some limitations on our freedom to project that power - in defence of what we think are both New Zealand and US interests - is something where you can appreciate the reaction in our defence quarters and in Congress.

"Our ability to go after the bad guys, as it were, really is linked to a lot of what we do with our Navy."

Prime Minister Helen Clark refused to comment directly on Mr Aldonas' statements yesterday.

Her spokesman, David Lewis, said the US Administration and the New Zealand Government's views on the nuclear issue were well known.

'We know that the US regards it as unfinished business," Mr Lewis said, "but New Zealand has no plans to change its current policy."

Mr Aldonas made it clear in his speech that there was a strong sensitivity within the US Defence Department and other parts of the Administration on the nuclear issue.

"There is also a recognition that in many respects it is an artefact of another age and we both need to be working hard at our relationship.

"The notion that American ships, because of their nuclear propulsion systems, can't stop at the port of a friendly country seems untoward, particularly when we share common values."

No part of the world was safe from terrorism.

"The idea that young Kiwis could be targeted in a place like Bali by terrorists simply because they went there to exercise their freedoms and see a wider world is something that certainly has the same impact on people in Auckland and Wellington as September 11 had for us."

The Lange Government - under pressure from politicians such as Helen Clark - introduced legislation to ban nuclear-armed and propelled ships from New Zealand waters in 1985.

Former Labour Cabinet minister Dr Michael Bassett last week called on Helen Clark to revoke the anti-nuclear legislation and restore the relationship with the US.

Mr Aldonas also met Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton in Wellington to plan a joint strategy for the World Trade Organisation meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

He praised New Zealand's leadership role in trade liberalisation, but indicated that a NZ-US free trade deal was not on the Bush Administration's negotiating list.