Countries in Asia and the Pacific must honor existing regional and multilateral commitments, such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to prevent an arms race in the region, an Indonesian Foreign Ministry official has said.

"We vowed not to obtain nuclear weapons by signing the NPT. We' ve also declared ASEAN as a nuclear-weapons-free zone. So I think we have to stick to existing commitments to avoid an arms race," director for international security and disarmament Hasan Kleib was quoted Thursday by major national newspaper The Jakarta Post as saying.

He said international treaties and regional commitments provided an adequate foundation for preventing the region from becoming entangled in a nuclear arms race, but only if countries honored these treaties.

Hasan was responding to a report that Australia would push for Asia-wide regulations covering nuclear power, similar to those in Europe, to boost confidence in nuclear non-proliferation.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said Canberra backed an Asian equivalent of the European Atomic Energy Community, or EURATOM.

Source: Xinhua