pressed for a quick resolution to talks on an underground

Subject: HEADLINES 23 Januari 1996

nuclear test ban treaty so the text could go to the U.N.
General Assembly by June. In a message read to the Disarmament
Conference in Geneva, he said the treaty was vital to slow
both the spread and development of nuclear weapons. But India
and Pakistan, both nuclear "threshold" states, appeared to
link progress on a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) to
major powers agreeing to open negotiations on a nuclear
disarmament treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. Meanwhile,
the environmentalist group Greenpeace welcomed the resumption
of the 38-state negotiations on a CTBT, but again urged China
and France to cancel their remaining nuclear tests.

      23 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - India on its conditions for
endorsing a global treaty to ban underground nuclear tests,
saying nuclear powers must first give assurances on
eliminating their arsenals within a specified time. Foreign
Ministry spokesman Arif Khan told reporters New Delhi's
conditions to support the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
being negotiated in Geneva by 38 countries were unchanged
despite Western pressure.

      23 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - An International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) delegation arrived in Pyongyang to discuss a
nuclear programme suspended under an agreement with the United
States, North Korea's official news agency said.

      23 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - France said that insignificant
traces of radioactive material often leaked after its nuclear
tests in the South Pacific but denied a report that an
official tried to cover up a recent seepage. Alain Barthoux,
director of the nuclear test division at France's Atomic
Energy Commission (CEA) denied a report in Japan's Yomiuri
Shimbun newspaper that small amounts of radioactive iodine
131, which can cause cancer, had been found near the Mururoa
atoll test site since September and that a CEA official tried
to hush it up.

      23 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - Japan's first private nuclear
fuel reprocessing plant will cost more than 1.6 trillion yen
($15.2 billion), nearly double the initial estimate, Japan
Nuclear Fuel Limited executives told. "The initial estimate
drawn up in 1988 was 840 billion yen ($8 billion)," managing
director Hiroshi Tonouchi said.

      23 Jan 1996 (UPI) - India reiterated its stand against
signing the proposed Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
unless a definite timetable is also negotiated for the
complete elimination of nuclear weapons. A spokesman for
India's Ministry of External Affairs made the remark
responding to a press report that India had been pressured by
foreign governments into signing the treaty.

      23 Jan 1996 (UPI) - U.S. President Bill Clinton urged
governments to take urgent national political action to
conclude a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty for
underground explosions by June. But the Group of 21 nations,
which includes nuclear threshold states India and Pakistan,
want the test ban negotiations linked to new talks on a
nuclear disarmament treaty to stop the United States, Britain,
France, Russia and China from developing fissile material for
their existing nuclear arsenals.

      23 Jan 1996 (UPI) - France reaffirmed that its current
series of nuclear tests in the South Pacific poses no threat
to the region's environment. The statement came in response to