Delegates from 188 nations agreed on Wednesday on an agenda to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, ending 10 days of diplomatic wrangling and paving the way for the first serious discussions on improving the treaty's control of nuclear weapons.
Egypt had insisted that the month-long conference include discussion of a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.
The deadlock was broken when delegates agreed to put a reference to previous conferences where that issue was discussed in a footnote to the agenda.
Ahmed Fatthala, Egypt's assistant foreign minister for international organizations, said agreement means that all three subjects discussed at the 1995 review conference will also be on the agenda at the current meeting -- the Middle East, disarmament and nonproliferation.
"These were the three pillars," he said. "We wanted to have a successful meeting, and we couldn't have a successful meeting if we ignored the balanced package we have already agreed upon in 1995."
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said the impasse was the result of US insistence that the conference ignore the 1995 and the 2000 treaty reviews and their decisions on disarmament steps, and the insistence of the 116 developing countries in the Nonaligned Movement that the current meeting review and assess progress on past commitments.
Brazilian diplomat Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, president of the month-long review conference, said the solution to the agenda dispute "accommodates the interest of all delegations, including that of Egypt."
Delegates were to meet yesterday to try to resolve the other key procedural issue -- allocating items on the agenda to three main committees and determining how the committees will organize their work, he said.
With just over two weeks left for the conference, Duarte said there was still time to reach an agreement that would reinforce the treaty "in all its aspects" if delegates help.
But others are pessimistic, pointing to the lengthy dispute over the agenda language as a reflection of the deep divisions on the treaty itself.
The Nonproliferation Treaty went into effect in 1970. North Korea withdrew in 2003. Three countries have refused to join -- India, Pakistan and Israel.
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