Balstrome
Banned
6:58am UK, Monday April 12, 2010
Andy Winter, Sky News Online
Al Qaeda "would have no compunction" using nuclear weapons if it could acquire them, US President Barack Obama has warned on the eve of a summit to secure the world's nuclear stockpile.
President Obama says securing loose nuclear arms is the most urgent issue
The Nuclear Security Summit of more than 40 world leaders in Washington this week is aimed at securing "loose nuclear material", Mr Obama said.
"The single biggest threat to US security, both short-term, medium-term and long-term, would be the possibility of a terrorist organisation obtaining a nuclear weapon," he said.
"This is something that could change the security landscape in this country and around the world for years to come."
He added: "If there was ever a detonation in New York City, or London, or Johannesburg, the ramifications economically, politically and from a security perspective would be devastating."
Mr Obama said organisations like al Qaeda are in the process of trying to secure nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction and "would have no compunction at using them".
He said other world leaders have offered "very specific approaches to how we can solve this profound international problem".
On Thursday, Mr Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that reduces each side's deployed nuclear arsenal to 1,550 weapons.
The US President said securing loose nuclear arms was "a central part of the process, but probably the most urgent one and the one we are most concerned with in the short term".
SkyNews