Brown says Britain could cut nuclear weapons

July 10, 2009 AFP

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ioTtwdb7hFBikLbz8_PfXFDzp82Q

L'AQUILA, Italy (AFP) ­ Prime Minister Gordon
Brown says Britain could reduce its nuclear
arsenal as part of a global disarmament deal to
persuade Iran and North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Speaking to reporters at the G8 summit in Italy,
Brown said the government may reduce its warhead
numbers in return for Tehran and Pyongyang abandoning nuclear programmes.

But he stressed that the country had no plans to
unilaterally abandon its 160-warhead Trident
arsenal or scrap plans to replace the fleet of
submarines that act as its platform.

"Iran is attempting to develop a nuclear weapon,
Korea is attempting to develop a nuclear weapon," he told reporters Thursday.

"We've got to show we can deal with this by
collective action and I think unilateral action
by the United Kingdom would not be seen as the best way forward.

"What you need is collective action by the
nuclear weapons powers to say that we are
prepared to reduce our nuclear weapons but we
need assurances also that other countries will not proliferate them."

Brown -- who first offered to negotiate on
Trident as part of international talks in March
-- gave no details of the size of any cut in the British deterrent.

He also said that in future, he would like to see
a nuclear policing regime where "the onus will be
on the countries that don't have nuclear weapons
to prove they don't have nuclear weapons."

Group of Eight leaders meeting at their summit in
Italy agreed to US President Barack Obama's
proposal that a nuclear security summit should be
held in Washington ahead of the planned review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.





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