Annan singles out Iran in nuclear-free plea

He also called on the United States and Russia to cut back more sharply on their arsenals, saying all must work toward "a world of reduced nuclear threat and, ultimately, a world free of nuclear weapons".

Mr Annan was speaking to the delegations from almost 190 governments that have gathered in New York for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference, at a time of mounting nuclear fears and mistrust.

North Korea, which declared its withdrawal from the treaty in 2003 and claims to have built nuclear bombs, said at the weekend it was ending talks with the US over its weapons programme - a new blow to the six-party talks aimed at bringing Pyongyang back into the NPT.

Iran, meanwhile, said it would probably restart this week operations related to its uranium enrichment programme, which Washington maintains is a cover for nuclear weapons plans.

The "nuclear fuel cycle" is key to suspicions about Iran’s intentions. The NPT guarantees states without nuclear weapons the right to peaceful nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment equipment, to produce fuel for power plants. But that same technology, with further enrichment, can produce material for nuclear bombs.

Mr Annan told the conference that countries such as Iran "must not insist" on obtaining such sensitive technology domestically, but should have international access to nuclear fuel. Meanwhile, he said, "a first step would be to expedite agreement to create incentives for states to voluntarily forego the development of fuel-cycle facilities".

The Tehran government, which denies it plans to convert uranium for weapons, is in on-off talks with European negotiators about shutting down its enrichment operations in return for economic incentives.

Many governments at the conference have complained that the US and the other major powers are moving too slowly toward scrapping their nuclear arms under the NPT.

Mr Annan addressed that in his speech, calling on Washington and Moscow "to commit themselves - irreversibly - to further cuts in their arsenals, so that warheads number in the hundreds, not the thousands".

Under the 2002 Moscow Treaty, the US and Russia are to cut back to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads by 2012. But the agreement has been criticised for not requiring the destruction of excess warheads and not providing for open verification of ongoing reductions.

"Unless all states recognise that disarmament, like non-proliferation, requires action from everyone, the goal of general and complete disarmament will remain a distant dream," Mr Annan told delegates.

The 35-year-old NPT obliges 183 states to do without nuclear arms in exchange for a pledge by the five nuclear powers - the US, Russia, Britain, France and China - to move toward nuclear disarmament. Three other states with nuclear arms - Israel, India and Pakistan - remain outside the treaty.

Treaty reviews take place every five years and many non-nuclear states want to address what they say is the failure of the US administration - by, for example, rejecting the nuclear test-ban treaty - to meet its commitment.

The US government says the conference should focus on what to do about Iran and North Korea, which was able to withdraw from the treaty and purportedly build atomic weapons, without penalty.

This clash of priorities stalled efforts to set a full agenda for this meeting. The conference president, Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, from Brazil, says the agenda may not be completed until several days into the sessions, but "everyone is working constructively in that direction".

To Akemi Hatano, 66, a Japanese anti-nuclear protester who marched with hundreds of others past the UN headquarters, such disputes are trivial.

She was seven when a US nuclear bomb hit her home town of Hiroshima, killing or injuring 160,000 people. She said: "I’m angry at any country that possesses nuclear weapons. They must all be abolished."