Key facts: Nonproliferation Treaty

UNITED NATIONS - The month long conference that began on Monday at the United Nations aims to take stock of the 1970 nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which was designed to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. Following are some details associated with this issue:

Member states:

-- 188 states have signed the NPT including the five declared nuclear weapons states: the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia.

-- Three states have not signed but are understood to have nuclear arms: India, Pakistan and Israel.

-- One state, North Korea, signed the treaty and then withdrew. It recently announced it has nuclear weapons.

Nuclear weapons arsenals:

-- UN experts estimate there are 30,000 weapons worldwide.

-- Of this number, the United States is estimated to have some 7100 operational nuclear warheads with 3000-5000 more in its stockpile.

-- Russia is thought to have 8000 operational nuclear warheads and 8000 stockpiled.

-- China is said to have 402 nuclear weapons; France, 348; and Britain, 185.

-- As for non-NPT members, India and Pakistan are said to have some 40 operational warheads each, while Israel's arsenal is put at around 200.

-- US officials estimate North Korea may have produced enough nuclear fuel for nine weapons.

Disarmament debate:

Nuclear have-nots complain that nuclear states, especially the United States, are not moving fast enough toward NPT-mandated disarmament. Washington has mounted a vigorous defence, insisting it leads the world in efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological arms in these ways:

-- The United States has reduced its nuclear stockpile by more than 13,000 weapons since 1988, officials say.

-- An US-sponsored resolution, adopted by the UN Security Council, requires states to enact and enforce effective legal and regulatory anti-proliferation measures.

-- More than 60 states have joined the US-launched Proliferation Security Initiative that encourages states to interdict shipments of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) on sea, land and in the air.

-- Since 1991, the United States has spent more than $9 billion in cooperative projects to safeguard and eliminate WMD technology and facilities, including destroying 6,312 nuclear warheads, 537 intercontinental ballistic missiles and 27 nuclear submarines.

-- The United States and Britain played leading roles in shutting down the nuclear black market headed by Pakistani Abdul Qadeer Khan and in persuading Libya to jettison its nuclear programme.

- REUTERS