A WORLDWIDE ban on all nuclear weapons鈥� testing is likely to be agreed
before the end of the month, following an announcement by China last week that
it will not insist on the right to conduct 鈥減eaceful鈥� nuclear
explosions.
The main stumbling block to an agreement had been China鈥檚 plan to use nuclear
devices to create an underground canal to divert water from the mountains of
Tibet to deserts in northwest China.
Test ban treaty insiders believe that agreement will not be impeded by
China鈥檚 latest nuclear test, carried out last Saturday. The Chinese government
says it will conduct one more test before the treaty comes into force at the end
of this year.
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Sha Zugang, the Chinese ambassador at the test ban negotiations in Geneva,
says that the ban on peaceful explosions should be reviewed after 10 years.
According to the US disarmament ambassador Stephen Ledogar, such a compromise is
鈥渘ot altogether unreasonable鈥�.
One remaining problem is an Indian proposal to commit the nuclear nations to
disarmament. But India is now expected to back down.