Shaken by anthrax attacks, the United States will urge
tightening global controls on biological weapons when officials from
144 countries open talks today, a senior U.S. government official said.
Under the plan, announced on Nov. 1 by George W. Bush, the U.S.
President, countries would pledge to take clampdown measures such
as adopting national laws criminalizing the use of toxic pathogens.
John Bolton, U.S. Undersecretary of State, will spell out Washington's
plan for strengthening the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons
Convention, including setting up a mechanism for UN inspections of
suspicious disease outbreaks.
Senior arms control officials are attending the Review Conference in
Geneva on the Cold War era pact which bans germ warfare but lacks a
verification regime to check on cheating.
In July, the United States rejected a draft protocol on verification.
Under negotiation since 1995, it would have set up an intrusive regime
for on-site inspections of military and commercial biotech facilities
worldwide.
"We've got four or five proposals we are making at the conference,
each of which is something we think we can accomplish," a senior U.S.
government official said. "It helps address the question not only of
states that might have biological weapons programs but also a
terrorist problem, which is a very real thing given the anthrax attacks."
There was already "genuine support" for the U.S. proposals as being
"constructive and positive," the official said.
But some Western states and non-aligned powers -- led by Cuba, Iran
and Pakistan -- complain the proposed U.S. package of national
measures represent mere political commitments which fall short of a
legally-binding global protocol.
"The U.S. is presenting its measures as an alternative to the protocol.
But a slew of national measures cannot replace an international
instrument which legally binds states together," a negotiator from a
European Union member state told Reuters. "I am pessimistic. In the
EU view, the U.S. proposals can't replace what we need."
The high-level Review Conference, held every five years, comes as the
FBI investigates who is responsible for anthrax attacks that killed four
people in the United States.
There have been 17 confirmed cases of anthrax, mostly connected to
U.S. mail, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. About 32,000 Americans
have been prescribed antibiotics to treat or prevent anthrax.
Authorities were continuing yesterday to conduct tests on the most
recently discovered anthrax-laced letter in the hope that the
correspondence will yield vital clues in the U.S. government's stymied
bioterrorism probe.
Officials placed the unopened letter -- mailed to U.S. Senator Patrick
Leahy -- in an airtight bag and delivered it to a U.S. Army medical
research lab in Fort Detrick, Md., where scientists tested it for anthrax
spores.
The letter also will be scoured for evidence, such as fingerprints, hairs
or fibres.
FBI officials said initial tests suggested the correspondence contained
the deadly microbes, but said final results would not be available until
later this week.
The FBI said the handwriting and the postmark on the envelope
addressed to Mr. Leahy were similar to those on letters mailed to
Senate Leader Tom Daschle, NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, and to the New
York Post newspaper.
All four letters were postmarked from Trenton, N.J., and passed
through the Brentwood mail-sorting facility near Washington, where
two postal workers died of inhalation anthrax.
The latest letter was found among 250 barrels of unopened mail
sequestered when the congressional postal service shut down last
month.
