EFL:VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The U.N. atomic watchdog agency on Friday agreed to create a committee to help crack down on nuclear proliferators but left it without the teeth sought by the United States. Jackie Sanders, the U.S. chief delegate to the board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, hailed the move as "an important step" that meets a 2004 proposal by President Bush to fight rogue states trying to make the bomb and their black market suppliers. Bush had said such a committee should "focus intensively on safeguards and verification." "The proliferation challenges of today, including ... North Korea and Iran and the revelation of nuclear procurement networks, call for more evolution," Sanders told reporters. "This new committee should play a key role in helping us meet those challenges." | That's it! Form a committee! Brillient! |
Instead, its mandate was vague and reduced to considering "ways and means to go strengthen the safeguards system and to report ... with recommendations," to the board.
Both the rejected U.S. proposals and the restricted U.N. document setting up the committee were made available to the AP by diplomats who demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to pass on such information to the media.