Member states to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) on Tuesday called on countries possessing chemical weapons to speed up the destruction of these weapons, and completely destroy all stockpiles by the 2012 deadline set by the anti-chemical weapons treaty.

The call was made at the annual meeting of the member states to the CWC in The Hague, which opened on Tuesday and runs through Friday.

Addressing the meeting, representatives of the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and many CWC member states all urged the six countries, which had declared chemical weapons, to intensify their efforts and comply with the deadlines of the the treaty.

"... the obligation under the convention to complete destruction of all chemical weapons by 2007, or if granted an extension, in any case by 2012, is binding on all state parties without exception," Finnish representative Markus Lyra said on behalf of the EU. Finland currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

In a statement read out at the meeting, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged all signatories to "destroy these cruel and inhuman weapons within already established deadlines."

The CWC, which entered into force on April 29, 1997, requires signatory states to destroy all their chemical weapons by April 29, 2007. If there is difficulty in meeting this requirement, the deadline could be extended only once, by five years.

Five of the six countries, including major chemical weapons possessors, the United States and Russia, have asked to extend the deadline to April 29, 2012. Whether or not to grant them the extension will be one of the key topics at the meeting.

Annan also urged the countries that have not yet ratified or acceded to the treaty, to do so without delay.

Nine countries in the world have not yet signed the convention and six others have signed but not ratified the treaty.

Speaking on behalf of the NAM member countries to the CWC, Cuba's permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Oscar De Los Reyes Ramos expressed his "deepest concern about the current pace of the destruction process" and called on all possessor countries to "make every effort to comply with the deadlines."

He also called on developed countries to "promote international cooperation through the transfer of technology, material and equipment for peaceful purposes in the chemical field" and remove all "discriminatory restrictions."

In his opening address to the the meeting, OPCW Director-General Rogelio Pfirter said that much progress has been made in destroying existing stockpiles of chemical weapons and preventing production of new chemical weapons since the convention entered into force.

However he admitted that there is still much work still to be done in terms of the universal application of the chemical weapons treaty, noting that 15 countries are not yet bound by the treaty and many signatory countries still need to intensify their efforts in implementing the treaty rules.

The CWC is an international disarmament treaty, which bans the development, production, stockpiling, transfer and use of chemical weapons. It currently has 181 signatory countries, representing about 98 percent of the global population.

The OPCW, with its headquarters in The Hague, is mandated to oversee the implementation of the chemical weapons treaty.

In the past nine years, 22 percent of the world's declared stockpile of approximately 71,000 metric tons of chemical agent have been verifiably destroyed. Fifty-seven of the 65 declared chemical weapons production facilities have been either destroyed or converted into sites with the intention of use for peaceful purposes only.

Over 2,500 inspections have been conducted at chemical weapons-related industrial sites in 76 countries, the OPCW said.

Source: Xinhua