THE chief US negotiator has appealed to India and Iran not to veto sending the draft nuclear test ban treaty to the UN General Assembly for approval.
The US ambassador, Mr Stephen Ledogar, said yesterday it was important for the survival of the Conference on Disarmament that states unable to back the pact still allow the forum to send it to New York.
But the global accord to ban all nuclear explosions remains endangered, mainly due to opposition from India, a nuclear "threshold" state, according to some delegates.
Western officials believe India, which exploded a nuclear device in 1974, and its arch rival Pakistan could swiftly assemble nuclear weapons, although both countries deny they have already done so.
Mr Ledogar, asked how the 61 member Geneva body could overcome opposition at a plenary session scheduled for Tuesday, replied: "By finding a formula whereby the parties concerned would be satisfied to veto substance but not to veto process and thereby harming the Conference on Disarmament unnecessarily.
The US envoy said: "I would argue that it is not necessary to Indian or Iranian purposes to destroy the conference as a credible institution in order to make their points."
The Indian ambassador, Mr Arundhati Ghose, told the negotiating committee on Wednesday that her country could not accept the draft text in its current form. It would not allow the text by the chairman, Mr Jaap Ramaker, to be forwarded to the full conference.
New Delhi says it cannot accept a draft text saying the pact will become law only when ratified by 44 states including India a condition it views as undermining its sovereignty.
India also says it will not sign the current draft as it fails to commit the five declared nuclear powers - Britain, China, France, Russia and the US - to a firm timetable for eliminating their nuclear weapons.
Iran's envoy, Mr Sirous Nasseri, in a speech to the conference yesterday, called for further negotiations on the text.
Iran has objected that the treaty did not include a wider commitment to total nuclear disarmament, that spy satellites could be used to monitor compliance, and that Israel's membership of the 51 member executive council was as part of the Middle East grouping of states rather than as a western nation. Mr Nasseri said that these three objections "prevent us from lending our support" to the current draft.
Delegates agreed informally late on Wednesday on the terms of a report to the conference from an ad hoc committee negotiating the ban. Yesterday afternoon they met formally in committee.
The next General Assembly session opens on September 18th. The assembly had hoped to be given an approved treaty ready for signing.