Sensitivities may complicate summit: Paper

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-13 07:25

LOS ANGELES - A number of political sensitivities could complicate the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, the Los Angeles Times said on Monday.

"Many countries are highly sensitive to foreign powers' intrusions in their nuclear programs, for example, and would resist international efforts to force them to give up closely held information or allow inspectors to monitor their facilities," the paper said in a report from Washington.

There is even disagreement about the extent of the threat from unsecured materials. While some countries, such as the United States and Russia, believe the threat of militant groups acquiring nuclear weapons should be the top priority, some European leaders are more concerned about so-called "dirty bomb" radioactive materials, which could be much more easily acquired, said the paper, quoting Sharon Squassoni, a former US official at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Germany says it sees dirty bombs in terrorist hands as an even larger threat than regular nuclear weapons and will stress that point at the summit.

Speaking ahead of her departure on Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that such weapons "must not under any circumstances" fall into the hands of terror groups such as Al-Qaida.

"We believe that the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) must be strengthened. We are ready to pledge additional finances to make this happen," Merkel said of the international nuclear watchdog agency.

Many non-nuclear states see the agenda as America, the world's dominant nuclear power, "asking us to do more, and spend more, to make you feel safe," Squassoni was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled plans to attend because he feared Egypt and Turkey were going to embarrass Israel with complaints about the unacknowledged nuclear program Israel is widely assumed to have, the paper said.

A senior Arab official involved in summit planning insisted that the Arab countries had no such plans, the paper said.

"There was no intention to politicize the outcome of the summit," said the official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Obama administration officials have been quietly trying to craft a common position for world powers that remain sharply divided on the best way to safeguard materials that could be used to make a nuclear bomb, the paper said.

Xinhua - AP