The independent Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission has finalised two years of work with the presentation of its final report to the UN.

The report entitled "Weapons of Terror" analyses the threat facing the world today from 27,000 nuclear weapons. It outlines measures which it believes should be taken, and focuses on current nuclear threats from Iran, North Korea, the Middle East, India, and Pakistan.

The 14-member panel from all continents, chaired by the former UN Chief Weapons Inspector, Hans Blix, says disarmament is in disarray. After the 50 year Cold War there are new arms races evolving, emerging new nuclear weapons and missiles, and a quest to expand into Space.

The Commission says it is high time to revitalise global cooperation on disarmament, and proposes sixty recommendations to advance this. It says all governments must accept the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that was agreed 10 years ago which demanded countries in possession of nuclear weapons commence reducing their arsenals, and stop producing plutonium and uranium enrichment for more nuclear weapons.

The commission report, unanimously approved by its 14-members which include former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry, long-standing British diplomat Alyson J. K. Bailes, and former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, says Iran and Israel should both end nuclear enrichment as part of a renewed drive to rid the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction.

Arguing that nuclear, biological and chemical arms are "the most inhumane of all weapons" capable of vast, indiscriminate and long-lasting destruction, the report points out that so long as any country has these weapons others will want them. "So long as any such weapons remain in any State's arsenal, there is a high risk that they will one day be used, by design or accident," the authors note, warning that, "any such use would be catastrophic."

Stocks remain "extraordinarily and alarmingly high," including 27,000 nuclear weapons, of which around 12,000 are still actively deployed.

While acknowledging that weapons of mass destruction "cannot be uninvented," the report stresses that they can be outlawed, as biological and chemical weapons already have been, and their use made unthinkable. "Compliance, verification and enforcement rules can, with the requisite will, be effectively applied. And with that will, even the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons is not beyond the world's reach."

In the face of a mounting loss of momentum in disarmament and non-proliferation efforts - as evidenced by the failure of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference and the inability of the 2005 World Summit to agree on any WMD issue, the Commission says there is an urgent need to revive "meaningful" negotiations on reducing the danger of present arsenals, and preventing proliferation.

The report calls for convening a world summit on disarmament, non-proliferation and terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction "to generate new momentum for concerted international action."

In order to reduce the danger of present arsenals, the report calls for securing all weapons of mass destruction and all WMD-related material and equipment from theft or other acquisition by terrorists. Nuclear weapons must be taken off high-alert status to cut the risk of launching them by error, while there should be "deep reductions" in strategic nuclear weapons. All non-strategic nuclear weapons should be placed in centralized storage and withdrawn from foreign soil.

Other recommendations call for a ban on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons, a phase out of the production of highly enriched uranium, the adoption of 'no-first-use' pledges, assurances not to use atomic arms against non-nuclear-weapon States, and no development of nuclear weapons for new tasks.

Ultimately, the report points to the need to outlaw all weapons of mass destruction "once and for all."

In his preface to the report, Blix sounds a note of cautious optimism. "At the present time it seems to me that not only successes in the vital work to prevent proliferation and terrorism but also progress in two additional areas could transform the current gloom into hope," he writes, calling for bringing the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) into force and negotiating a global treaty to stop the production of fissile material for weapons.

"In both these areas the United States has the decisive leverage," he says. "If it takes the lead the world is likely to follow. If it does not take the lead, there could be more nuclear tests and new nuclear arms races."

Blix echoed this point during a press conference held in New York Thursday in conjunction with the report's launch. "If there were to be ratification by governments of the CTBT including in the US where it was turned down by the Senate a number of years ago then this would change the atmosphere completely," he said, adding that he didn't see "any sign" of this happening at present.

"The US is opposed to a ratification but the reality is probably that if the US were to ratify then China would; if China did then India would; if India did Pakistan would; if Pakistan did then Iran would. So it would set in motion a domino effect," he said.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the report after receiving it from Blix.

Annan called it "an important contribution to the debate on disarmament and non-proliferation" and urged the international community "to study the report and consider its recommendations."

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission was established on an initiative by the late Foreign Minister of Sweden, Anna Lindh, acting on a proposal by then United Nations Under-Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala. The Swedish Government invited Dr. Blix to set up and chair the Commission.