SYDNEY, Oct 20: More than a dozen nations held talks on Monday on strengthening an international agreement on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.

No breakthroughs were immediately announced after the first meeting of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation, a joint Australia-Japan venture that brings together officials from the world’s major nuclear powers and other interested countries.

Former diplomats and senior officials from 15 countries taking part in the forum will hold a second day of talks on Tuesday.

The commission was announced by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on a visit to Japan in June.

He said at the time its purpose would be to restore and strengthen fragmenting support for the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which dates back to 1968 but has not been signed by nuclear powers India, Pakistan or Israel.

The group aims to influence a review of the treaty that is due in 2010.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said his country, which has given the commission 3.8 million Australian dollars (US$2.7 million) this year, hoped to raise the profile of the non-proliferation issue and eventually to help rid the world of nuclear weapons.

“We see this as a genuine ... nongovernment dialogue which will encourage a sharp focus by the international community on short-term good results from the NPT conference but also to start moving forward again on nuclear disarmament,” Smith told reporters in Canberra, referring to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

The decommissioning of all nuclear weapons was not in the foreseeable future, “but it’s the Australian government’s long-term objective that the manufacture (and) the possession of nuclear weapons cease,” he said.

Former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans and former Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi co-chaired the first meetings of the commission. Other commissioners include former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas, Alexei Arbatov from Russia, Jehangir Karamat from Pakistan, Frangois Heisbourg from France, Klaus Naumann from Germany, Ernesto Zedillo from Mexico and Wang Yingfan from China.Four members were unable to make the Sydney meeting – Turki Al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia, South Africa’s Frene Noshir Ginwala, India’s Brajesh Mishra and Shirley Williams from the UK.

The former ministers were due to hold a news conference on Tuesday.—Agencies