Ban asks about nuclear test treaty

UNITED NATIONS - An impatient U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is pushing to set a deadline for activating the treaty banning all nuclear tests, stepping up pressure in a campaign to win over holdouts, including the U.S. Senate.

"The bottom line is this: It has been 15 years since the treaty was opened for signature. How long must we wait?" Ban asked delegates at the opening of a pivotal, monthlong conference on nuclear nonproliferation.

The U.S. Senate in 1999 rejected the "CTBT," the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty, but President Barack Obama plans to resubmit the pact for ratification. Some Republicans are again mustering opposition, but Democrats are hopeful of approval next year.

Ban also said it's time to consider creative ways to get around what may prove to be final die-hard obstacles to the treaty - possibly a resistant North Korea, or India and Pakistan.

Negotiated in the 1990s, the treaty specified 44 nuclear-capable states - from Algeria to Vietnam - that must give full approval before it can take effect.

Nine of those have not yet ratified, although one, Indonesia, announced at the start of the nonproliferation conference on Monday that it would soon approve the treaty. Like China, the Jakarta government had long indicated it would wait for the U.S. to act, but new Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said it would no longer be steered by U.S. decisions.

The other holdouts among the 44, besides the U.S., China and Indonesia, have been Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan. A total of 151 nations have ratified the pact.

Although earlier treaties outlawed all but underground nuclear blasts under 150 kilotons - equivalent to 150,000 tons of TNT - this one would impose a blanket ban on any test anywhere, putting the power of international law and U.N. Security Council enforcement behind the ban.