The failure of the world's nuclear powers to make headway on disarmament is threatening to unravel a landmark treaty coming up for review next week, the UN's disarmament chief has warned. The 190 countries that have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) are opening a month-long conference on Monday at the United Nations to take stock amid much gloom over the lack of progress.
"We have a stalling in the path to a nuclear-free world," said Angela Kane, the UN high representative for disarmament affairs. "The nuclear-weapons states are not living up to their side of the bargain," Kane told in a meeting on Wednesday. Reached in 1968, the NPT has been billed as a grand bargain between the five nuclear powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the US - and non-nuclear states which agreed to give up atomic weapon ambitions in exchange for disarmament pledges.