Russia wants Mideast WMD-Free Zone conference

Moscow, May 4 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Moscow believes there is a pressing need to hold an international conference on a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East before the end of the current year, the Russian foreign ministry said Saturday.

A meeting of the preparatory committee for non-proliferation treaty (NPT) review was held in Geneva from April 22 through May 3, attended by representatives of 106 signatory states and over 60 NGOs.

The meeting expressed its "consensus-based position that all challenges to the nonproliferation regime should be resolved solely on the basis of NPT provisions", the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

One key priority in that context is the holding of a conference on the creation of a zone free from nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, it continued.

�"This calls for urgent and focused measures,�" the ministry said.

The task of holding such a conference in 2012 was set at the NPT review meeting in 2010.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

sd/vm