Work on nuclear-test ban to continue in Conference in 1996.

• Position: Disarmament: UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament

Progress in negotiating a comprehensive test-ban treaty had been made at the Conference on Disarmament in 1995, and "strengthened determination" to resolve technical issues could bring those efforts to a successful conclusion no later than 1996, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali declared in his annual report (A/50/1).

On 22 September, the Geneva-based Conference - in ending its three-part annual session (27 January-7 April; 29 May-7 July; and 31 July-22 September) - approved some important changes to an already existing text, mostly relating to scope and the verification aspects of the treaty. That was made possible through the decisions of France, the United Kingdom and the United States to support a true zero yield treaty that would ban any nuclear-weapon-test explosion.

It also decided to re-establish the Ad Hoc Committee on a Nuclear Test Ban at its 1996 session, with a view to completing the negotiations as soon as possible and no later than 1996".

Nevertheless, Ad Hoc Committee Chairman Ludwik Dembinski of Poland on 21 September warned that unless the pace of negotiations increased, the Conference would be "hard-pressed" to meet that goal. A breakthrough must come soon on the scope of the treaty", he told the world's sole multilateral disarmament body.

During the session, the Ad Hoc Group of Scientific Experts to Consider International Cooperative Measures to Detect and Identify Seismic Events continued its work on measures to facilitate an international exchange of seismological data, which would be included in a protocol to the comprehensive test-ban treaty.

With regard to prohibition of production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices - the so-called "cut-off" convention - the Conference in March established a relevant ad hoc committee, but failed to appoint a Chairman.

There was also no agreement on establishing or re-establishing ad hoc committees on: cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament; prevention of nuclear war; prevention of an arms race in outer space; effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons; new types of weapons of mass destruction; radiological weapons; and transparency in armaments.

On membership expansion, the Conference decided on 21 September that 23 States - Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Finland, Iraq...