UNITED NATIONS: Former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said on Monday that the United States ambivalence towards the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty is dimming global support for the US campaign to shut down nuclear programmes of North Korean and Iran.

“Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, by questioning the value of treaties and international law, has also damaged the US position,” Mr Blix said at a news conference on the sidelines of the NPT review conference.

Mr Blix said: “There is a feeling that the common edifice of the international community is being dismantled.” He also cited the Bush administration proposals to build new nuclear weapons and talk in Washington even of testing weapons, ending a 13-year-old US moratorium on nuclear tests.