Addressing the UN sponsored ‘Conference on Disarmament’ based in Geneva Mr Browne made an offer on behalf of the UK government to host a conference for all the signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) before the NPT comes up for review in 2010.

This marks a break on the part of the Brown government from the policy followed under Tony Blair, under the new counter proliferation measures will run alongside efforts to bring about multilateral disarmament, previously the focus was solely on preventing proliferation.

Speaking about the UK’s duties under the NPT the Defence Secretary said that under the treaty Britain had ‘commitments’ to fulfil not just ‘theoretical obligations to observe’ and that the ‘international community needs a transparent, sustainable and credible plan for multilateral disarmament.’

Responding to the announcement CND Chair Kate Hudson welcomed this development as ‘part of the Brown government’s markedly better approach to taking multilateral disarmament seriously. But this must be the first step of many.’

Ms Hudson went on to praise the Defence Secretary for identifying the 2010 NPT review as a ‘key deadline’ but stressed the need for nuclear states to be allowed to disarm in parallel.

CND, she said ‘believes that with the investment of sufficient political capital, the conference could provide a breakthrough in disarmament efforts and urged the government to support a plan lodged with the UN for a process of parallel disarmament that has already been backed by India, China and Pakistan saying ‘the support of the UK could prove decisive in making nuclear disarmament a reality.’