Moscow, May 4 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Moscow believes there is a pressing need to hold an international conference on a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East before the end of the current year, the Russian foreign ministry said Saturday.
A meeting of the preparatory committee for non-proliferation treaty (NPT) review was held in Geneva from April 22 through May 3, attended by representatives of 106 signatory states and over 60 NGOs.
The meeting expressed its "consensus-based position that all challenges to the nonproliferation regime should be resolved solely on the basis of NPT provisions", the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.
One key priority in that context is the holding of a conference on the creation of a zone free from nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, it continued.
�"This calls for urgent and focused measures,�" the ministry said.
The task of holding such a conference in 2012 was set at the NPT review meeting in 2010.
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--IANS/RIA Novosti
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