"Australia, being the world's biggest uranium supplier with a track record of its engagement over a range of nuclear issues, is well-equipped to play some kind of leadership role," Gareth Evans, the co-chair of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's newly formed nuclear disarmament commission, said today.
"It is a big issue, the world wants something done and the truth of the matter is we have not yet got the kind of momentum we need as international community to get something done," he said, adding if this can contribute only in a small way to generating that momentum, it will be worthwhile.
Although the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a process of disarmament around it already existed, the new commission would boost disarmament efforts, ABC quoted him as saying.
"It could bring in nations that are not party to the treaty or not abiding by its rules, including India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea," he added.
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It was time the world moved beyond stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, and on to outlawing "these awful weapons" for good, Evans said.
Rudd yesterday picked Evans to be Australia's head of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Commission, which he hopes will coordinate international talks ahead of a review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2010.
The initiative came after Rudd's visit to the shrine dedicated to the victims of the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bombing in Japan.