Government wants to foster peaceful nuclear power use

By Adrian Croft and Matt Falloon

LONDON (Reuters) - The government said on Tuesday that non-nuclear states should be helped to obtain civilian nuclear power and that it was prepared to include its nuclear weapons arsenal in multilateral arms control talks.

While Prime Minister Gordon Brown was speaking of his hopes for cuts in U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia would rearm its military and strengthen its nuclear forces because NATO was expanding towards its borders.

"We have to create a new international system to help non-nuclear states acquire the new sources of energy they need," Brown told a conference on nuclear energy in London.

The world would not meet its climate change goals without far wider use of low-carbon nuclear power, he said.

He said Iran was a test case for a new system he proposes -- help for countries developing peaceful nuclear power but "clear, tough and immediate" sanctions for those that break rules designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

Brown said nuclear weapons states should take active steps towards disarmament at the same time as effective mechanisms were developed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

He welcomed calls by Russia and the United States for a new strategic nuclear arms reduction pact, saying he hoped this would pave the way for greater reductions in nuclear arms.

"As soon as it becomes useful for our arsenal to be included in a broader negotiation, Britain stands ready to participate and to act," he said.