U.S. and Russia urged to talk about scrapping A-bombs

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http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/U_S_and_Russia_urged_to_talk_about_scrapping_A_bombs.html?siteSect=143&sid=7247086&cKey=1163188404000

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany and Norway urged the United States and Russia on Friday to take heed of North Korea's nuclear test and resume negotiations on dismantling their atomic arsenals to prevent a collapse of the non-proliferation regime.

In a joint editorial to be published on Saturday by Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr-Store warned that North Korea's atomic test proved it was time to upgrade the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The editorial calls on "the nuclear weapons states, particularly Russia and the United States, to fulfil their responsibility and declare they are ready to engage in further negotiations about their strategic nuclear weapons".

The editorial appears the same week the Democrats wrested control of the U.S. Congress from President George W. Bush's Republicans in mid-term elections, which many in Europe see as a rejection of Bush's unilateralism.

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