Obama hails nuclear summit progress

John Key is expected to announce support for a project Canada is undertaking at a Russian nuclear facility.

United States President Barack Obama closed his nuclear security summit in Washington yesterday with a roll call of tangible actions promised by countries, including Russia's announcement it will close down its last plutonium-producing plant.

He said the nations present had made the "unprecedented gathering a day of unprecedented progress" but he said it could not be "a fleeting moment". There had to be a serious and sustained global effort to secure all vulnerable materials around the world within the next four years.

"This is an ambitious goal and we are under no illusions that it will be easy but the urgency of the threat and the catastrophic consequences of even a single act of nuclear terrorism demand an effort that is at once bold and pragmatic and this is a goal that can be achieved."

Mr Obama detailed pledges from some of the 47 countries and a work programme towards the next summit, in South Korea in 2012.

He said the US and Russia had just agreed to eliminate 68 tonnes of plutonium from their weapons programmes - enough plutonium for about 1700 nuclear weapons.

The material would instead be used to generate electricity.

The commitments by New Zealand, as a non-nuclear small country, were modest and in the nature of affirming ongoing work.

It will continue working with Australia in Cambodia to secure nuclear waste safely and back further G8 global partnership projects that help secure nuclear material in the former Soviet Union which New Zealand has funded to the tune of $6 million.

Prime Minister John Key, who is in Ottawa today, is expected to announce backing of a Canadian project at a Russian nuclear facility.

Wrapping up the summit, Mr Obama said he and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper would seek commitments from other countries of US$10 billion ($14.05 billion) to fund further nuclear security measures.

Other examples cited by Mr Obama included: Canada's agreement to give up a significant quantity of highly enriched uranium; Chile's action already of giving up its entire stockpile of highly enriched uranium; Ukraine and Mexico's announcement they will do the same; Argentina and Pakistan's decision to strengthen port security and prevent nuclear smuggling; Argentina, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam's agreement to sign up to the international treaties already existing on nuclear security; Italy, Japan, India and China to create new centres to promote nuclear security, technologies and training; the US to ask the International Atomic Energy Agency to review security at its neutron research centre.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he wanted countries that transferred nuclear materials to be brought before the International Court of Justice - though there was not enough support for it to make the communique.

Mr Key indicated there could be further work in the United Nations to try to extend the role of the International Atomic Energy Agency into nuclear security.

Asked if he supported the proposal of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon to get a nuclear weapons convention to set out the stages of elimination of nuclear weapons, Mr Key said: "I think we'd need to go and look through that but that's a possibility."

Mr Key did not get a bilateral or a "pull-aside" with Obama at the summit - though President Hu Jintao of China asked to see him to say how well the free trade agreement was going. But he spent enough time with Obama to again invite him to New Zealand.

Meanwhile the Guardian is reporting that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told the summit - behind closed doors - that his forces foiled a plot last month to sell weapons-grade uranium on the black market.