US attempts to rally behind nations against nuclear defiant Iran - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday asked world leaders to support Washington in tightening sanctions against Iran. Hosting the 47-nation nuclear security summit here, Obama called for concerted global action to lock down loose nuclear materials, warning that if al Qaeda acquired an atomic weapon it would be a "catastrophe for the world." According to the New York Times, Obama said: "Two decades after the end of the Cold War, we face a cruel irony of history -- the risk of a nuclear confrontation between nations has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up." "So today is an opportunity not simply to talk, but to act...Not simply to make pledges, but to make real progress for the security of our people," Obama further said. But on the sidelines of the two-day gathering, Obama has conducted an intensive campaign to ratchet up international pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme, The New York Times quoted a foreign news agency as saying. Meanwhile, U.S. officials today sought to choreograph the summit to focus narrowly on nuclear security and avoid clashes among a fractious group ranging from traditional nuclear powers like Russia and Britain to nuclear-armed foes India and Pakistan , the report added. On the issues of global threats, Obama described nuclear terrorism as the single biggest global security threat and sought agreement on an action plan to secure all vulnerable fissile materials worldwide within four years to keep it away from groups like al Qaeda. The summit, the biggest hosted by the United States in over six decades, is a test of Obama's ability to galvanize global action on a broader nuclear agenda that eventually calls for ridding the planet of atomic weapons, the news report stated.