to France's strife-plagued nuclear weapons tests in the South

Subject: HEADLINES January 29 - 30, 1996

Pacific but it may take him some time to dispel their
political fallout.
He acknowledged the blasts had angered many at home and
abroad, but said they ensured Paris would retain a "reliable
and modern" deterrent, guaranteeing its children's future.  
In the first of his disarmament initiatives, Chirac committed
France to signing in the next few weeks the Rarotonga treaty
creating a nuclear-free zone in the South Pacific.  
Paris will also push for talks on extending its nuclear
umbrella to protect Germany and other European Union partners.

Jan 30 (Reuter) - China, now the only atomic power yet to halt
its nuclear testing, reported on France's cessation of its
test programme without political comment. Foreign Ministry
officials were not available for comment.

Jan 30 (Reuter) - Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating on
Tuesday welcomed French President Jacques Chirac's
announcement of an end to nuclear tests, but said France's
testing programme should never have been resumed.  

Jan 29 (Reuter) - The United States hailed France's decision
to end nuclear testing while New Zealand said the six recent
blasts meant South Pacific nations would be wary of Paris for
many years to come. Britain, which had pointedly declined to
joint international criticism over the blasts, said it was not
making any formal statement.

Jan 29 (Reuter) - The political pain caused by President
Jacques Chirac's decision to resume French nuclear tests for a
final series almost certainly outweighed the military gain,
strategic analysts say. Chirac's decision last June unleashed
a far bigger firestorm of world protest than his advisers had
anticipated, projecting an ugly image of France and, most
seriously from Paris' point of view, alienating large sections
of European public opinion.  

Jan 30 (Reuter) - Deep anger against French nuclear tests in
the South Pacific and calls for trade boycotts made scant
impression on New Zealand consumers. Statistics released on
Tuesday showed French exports to New Zealand increased 40
percent in 1995.  


Jan 29 (Reuter) - The deputy chairman of the Russian
parliament's defence committee said on Monday legislators
would begin examining the ratification of the START-2 nuclear
arms reduction treaty in the next few days. But other members
of the State Duma lower house said it was not clear the 1993
pact with the United States could be approved by the April
deadline set by President Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin said on
Saturday he would try to persuade the Duma to ratify the
treaty before he met leaders of the Group of Seven major
industrialised nations for a summit on nuclear security in
Moscow on April 19 and 20.
Viktor Ilyukhin, communist chairman of the Duma security
committee, told many Russian defence experts and military
leaders were against the treaty or were insisting on
amendments
On Friday the U.S. Senate approved the treaty, which requires
the United States and Russia to reduce their strategic
arsenals to between 3,000 and 3,500 nuclear weapons each by
2003, cutting them to about a third of their 1990 levels.  

Jan 29 (Reuter) - French President Jacques Chirac and Russian
President Boris Yeltsin will co-chair the international
conference on nuclear security in Moscow on April 19-20.
The conference will study such topics as safety in civilian
nuclear power stations and was decided by the world's seven