Iran to suggest reforms to failed NPT: President

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has failed and Iran will propose changes, as he left for New York on Sunday to take part in a conference to review the NPT.

The hard-line Iranian leader is to address the NPT conference on Monday, at the head of a delegation including Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

"The biggest threat to the world today is the production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons. For more than 60 years, the atomic threat has influenced world relations," Ahmadinejad told reporters before leaving for New York.#

"The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in the past 40 years has not been successful in its mission. We have no disarmament or non-proliferation and some countries have even procured the nuclear bomb during this period."

Iran is a signatory of the NPT, a creation of the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, and as such has the right to enrich uranium -- the most controversial part of its nuclear program.

Washington, its ally Israel -- believed to be the only undeclared nuclear weapons power in the Middle East -- and other world powers accuse Iran of masking a weapons drive under the guise of what Tehran says is a purely civilian atomic program.

Ahmadinejad, who has refused to abandon the uranium enrichment program and often lashes out at the NPT structure, said Iran's delegation would propose changes to the treaty during the review conference.

"This is an important meeting. For some time now, committees have been formed to undertake a fundamental revision (of the NPT) in order to achieve the aims for which the IAEA was formed," he said, quoted by Fars news agency.

"It is necessary to participate in this meeting at the highest level to offer the Iranian nation's proposals to the world. If this meeting is successful in making fundamental reforms to the NPT, it will be a big stride forward towards world security," he said.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Ahmadinejad would also "defend the rights of the Iranian people."

He is also expected to urge other NPT signatories to pressure Israel to sign the treaty, at a time when Washington is pressing world powers to impose a fourth round of UN sanctions against Tehran for defiantly enriching uranium.

It is necessary to participate in this meeting at the highest level to offer the Iranian nation's proposals to the world. If this meeting is successful in making fundamental reforms to the NPT, it will be a big stride forward towards world security

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Twice-a-decade marathon

Delegates of 189 nations convene Monday for a twice-a-decade marathon of diplomacy, dickering and deal making over the 40-year-old treaty designed to check the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide.

The presence of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the only head of state taking part, ensures sharp words will fly over Tehran's nuclear program and Israel's secret bombs, as well as over treaty outsider North Korea and the huge U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals.

But the conference's Filipino president puts the monthlong talks in a more amiable light.

"It's like a recommitment of marriage vows to the treaty, as the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy," said Ambassador Libran N. Cabactulan.

The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) is the world's single most important pact on nuclear arms, credited with preventing their spread to dozens of nations since entering into force in 1970.

It has done it via a grand global bargain: Nations without nuclear weapons committed not to acquire them; those with them committed to move toward their elimination; and all endorsed everyone's right to develop peaceful nuclear energy.

Treaty members -- every nation but India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea -- gather every five years to review how it's working and agree on new approaches to problems. They do that not by updating the treaty, a difficult task, but by trying to adopt a consensus final document calling for steps outside the treaty to advance its goals -- in U.S.-Russian arms reductions, for example, or by strengthening the hand of the U.N. nuclear inspectors, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

At three of seven past conferences, delegates failed to produce a declaration, including in 2005, at a time when the U.S. administration, under President George W. Bush, was unenthusiastic about arms control talks.

President Barack Obama has steered the U.S. back onto a negotiating track, including with a new U.S.-Russian agreement to reduce their thousands of long-range nuclear arms. Despite that, conference chief Cabactulan said he finds the No. 1 goal of many treaty nations is to press the NPT nuclear powers -- also including Britain, France and China -- to move more rapidly toward disarmament.

It's like a recommitment of marriage vows to the treaty, as the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy

Ambassador Libran N. Cabactulan

Clinton warning

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Ahmadinejad that he will fail if he tries to disrupt the New York talks.

"If President Ahmadinejad wants to come and announce that Iran will abide by their non-proliferation requirements under the NPT, that would be very good news indeed," she said.

"But if he thinks he can somehow divert attention from this very important global effort or cause confusion that might possibly throw into doubt what Iran has been up to ... I don't believe he will have a particularly receptive audience."

Even before leaving for New York, Ahmadinejad's trip has triggered a controversy with Iranian officials saying the United States had rejected visas for several members of his delegation.

Mottaki on Saturday accused Washington of holding the United Nations "hostage" by rejecting visas for Iranian delegates.

In Washington, a senior U.S. official told reporters on condition of anonymity that Iran had asked for no less than 70 visas.

U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, have denounced Ahmadinejad's plans to attend the NPT meeting.

"This is preposterous, and allowing it to happen will make a mockery of the effort to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to rogue states and terrorist groups," 14 Republican senators wrote to Clinton.

But if he thinks he can somehow divert attention from this very important global effort or cause confusion that might possibly throw into doubt what Iran has been up to ... I don't believe he will have a particularly receptive audience

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton