U.N. chief says atom treaty in crisis

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was suffering a crisis of confidence as member states met to mull how to prevent the pact from falling apart.

Two years after the last NPT Review Conference ended in deadlock after wrangling over the agenda, 188 nations began an NPT Preparatory Committee, running until May 11, to help pave the way to the next full conference in 2010.

The NPT binds members without nuclear bombs not to acquire them via diversions of peaceful nuclear energy know-how.

It also commits the original five nuclear weapons powers from the post-World War Two era to phase out their arsenals and guarantees the right of all members to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

But North Korea's nuclear test in 2006 after bolting the NPT and Iran's bid to enrich uranium in defiance of U.N. resolutions demanding that it stop due to fears of a covert quest for bombs have put the treaty under unprecedented strain.

The NPT is also faltering from a perception among nuclear "have nots" that nuclear "haves" have restricted access to atomic energy for development and stalled on disarmament obligations.

Ban, in a message to the Vienna meeting read out by an aide, said there was a "crisis of confidence" in the 37-year-old NPT.

LITANY OF TREATY PROBLEMS