The first meeting of the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) drifted closer to collapse on Monday as Iran withheld its reply to a proposal aimed at getting it to comply with nuclear rules.

According to local media, Iran was considering whether to accept a compromise statement proposed last Friday by South Africa designed to ease Iran's fears of being the target of criticism from fellow NPT members.

But the Iranian delegation at the conference said that it had not yet received instructions from Teheran. It was expecting an answer on Tuesday.

The meeting, which began on April 30 and was scheduled to end on Friday, was meant to set priorities to be fleshed out at follow-up meetings leading to the next full-scale NPT Review Conference in 2010.

Iran's delay in giving an answer on whether it would accept a compromise on complying with nuclear rules pushed the conference onto the verge of collapse as the conference agenda requires a consensus.

"If we do not decide on agenda by Tuesday morning we will have difficulty undertaking discussion on the substantive issues in a balanced manner," the conference's chairman Yukiya Amano warned.

Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh said last Wednesday that the obligation for Iran to implement the NPT was "a subject proposed by the United States."

He said Iran believed that "restricting the sessions of the conference to such a subject is irrational", adding that "other options such as nuclear disarmament and a Middle East free from nuclear weapons should also be included in the relevant agenda."

Some diplomats at the meeting suggested that Iran aimed to shift the attention of the conference to the course of international nuclear disarmament, and avoid a focus on its own nuclear program.
 
The diplomats believed that if Iran could not accept compromises on "agenda issues", the first preliminary committee meetings might be over ahead of schedule.

Delegates from 130 member countries, including China, and non-governmental organizations attended the meeting to present their principles and positions on nuclear disarmament, nuclear nonproliferation, and the peaceful use of nuclear power.

The second preliminary committee meeting will be held in April next year in Geneva.

(Xinhua News Agency May 8, 2007)