Proliferation talks at risk over Middle East nuke plan

Nuclear non-proliferation talks were on the brink of failure on Friday after the United States and its allies opposed holding a conference on creating a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East.

More than 150 countries have taken part in a month-long conference reviewing the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which seeks to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and technology.

But talks on a final document outlining an action plan in the next five years hit a wall over Arab demands that a conference on creating a Middle East nuclear-weapons free zone be convened by March 2016.

Israel, which is not a member of the NPT but is attending the conference as an observer, opposed the proposal backed by Egypt and Arab countries.

Israel is believed to be the only country possessing a nuclear arsenal in the region, although it has never acknowledged its nuclear military capacity.

US Arms Control Under Secretary Rose Gottemoeller told the NPT conference that provisions on holding the conference were "incompatible with our long-standing policies".

Gottemoeller argued that the proposed nuclear-free zone did not stand a chance of success "absent the consent of all states involved", a clear reference to Israel's opposition.

Earlier this week, the US administration had dispatched an envoy to Israel to discuss the proposal, hoping to reach a compromise that would salvage the final document of the NPT conference.

The head of the British delegation to the talks, Matthew Roland, also said the terms for convening the conference on the nuclear weapons-free zone were "a stumbling block for us."

In an eleventh-hour move, Iran, which heads the non-aligned movement, requested more time to consider the final document and the talks were suspended until 2300 GMT.

At the last NPT conference in 2010, a final document called for the conference on the nuclear-free weapons zone for the Middle East to be held in 2012, but that meeting never materialized.