Published:January 30th, 2008 10:49 EST

Ratification of Nuclear Treaty by Columbia Welcomed by U.N.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed Colombia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, http://disarmament.un.org/wmd/ctbt/index.html, (CTBT), which will enter into force when it becomes law in nine more countries.

In a statement, http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=2976 released by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban noted that Colombia is one of 144 States to ratify the Treaty, which outlaws all nuclear explosions and establishes a verification regime to monitor compliance.

Colombia also belongs to the group of 44 nations listed in the Treaty's second annex which must all ratify the CTBT for it to enter into force. Those countries formally participated in the 1996 session of the Conference on Disarmament, when the Treaty was negotiated, and either had nuclear power or research reactors at the time.

Colombia's ratification means 35 of those Annex 2 States have ratified. The remaining nine States which have not yet ratified are China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States.

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news