US to host March nuclear security summit: White House

Posted 07 9 2009 8:28PM

L'AQUILA, Italy (AFP) – US President Barack Obama will invite leaders from 25-30 countries to a March 2010 summit on securing nuclear materials and battling atomic smuggling, the White House said Wednesday.

Obama is hosting the gathering because he "believes nuclear terrorism is the most immediate and extreme threat to global security," Mark Lippert, chief of staff of the US National Security Council, told reporters on a conference call.

The summit's key goals will be securing vulnerable stockpiles of nuclear materials from theft and boosting global cooperation to combat the trafficking of atomic materials and know-how, said Lippert.

"We think this is another important piece of the non-proliferation agenda that the president has put forward," the US official said, adding that the gathering aimed to broaden Washington's "robust" bilateral arrangements on that front to a more multi-nation approach.