G8 SUMMIT: The Irish republic was last night named at the G8 summit as one of seven new countries to join a "global partnership" on curbing the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Members of the partnership will help restrict the transfer of nuclear materials, crack down on those who traffic in them and eliminate existing stockpiles of chemical and nuclear weapons.
Irish assistance will focus on the clean-up of nuclear facilities in the former Soviet Union as well as investment in a chemical weapons destruction programme.
A spokesman for the Taoiseach said significant levels of funding would be made available for the work and that €6 million had already been invested in the area under an EU-managed initiative.
The non-proliferation deal will include measures to retrain and employ nuclear weapons scientists in Iraq and Libya in order to prevent sensitive information being passed to countries such as Iran or North Korea.
A senior White House official said the 21 members of the global partnership, originally formed at a G8 summit two years ago, would dramatically expand the international community's efforts to prevent nuclear weapons falling into the hands of rogue states or terrorist groups.
As well as the republic, the new countries due to join the global partnership include Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Belgium, Denmark and the Czech Republic.
The deal, still being finalised last night, was expected to include a one-year moratorium on the sale of new nuclear materials that could be converted into fuel for nuclear weapons.
World leaders also welcomed the recently adopted UN Security Council resolution which called on states to improve export control systems and make unauthorised production of weapons of mass destruction a criminal offence under national laws.
Concern was expected to be expressed at Iran's nuclear programme, which international agencies say includes activities it has been unwilling to explain.
However, the draft text of the agreement stops short of a full-scale halting of the production of new nuclear materials signalled in a speech by President George Bush earlier this year.
It will allow countries who enrich uranium or reprocess spent nuclear reactor fuel to continue producing plutonium.
Several of those countries represented at the G8 summit - Britain, France, Japan and Russia - are not eager to give up their production capacity.
Despite last night's draft agreement, there was no sign last night that Mr Bush was willing to reopen a key plank of the 30-year-old nuclear non-proliferation treaty which requires nuclear-armed nations to provide technical support to non-nuclear countries to develop commercial programmes.
The Bush administration has also shied away from proposals to end the production of certain nuclear materials which would prevent the US producing new "bunker-busting" nuclear weapons.