The head of the State Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee has said Russia currently has no plans to deploy nuclear weapons beyond its territory, characterizing suggestions that Belarus could host nuclear-related weaponry as "theoretical."

In his first major foreign policy speech as French president, Nicolas Sarkozy said that an Iran with nuclear weapons was unacceptable. And he warned that Iran could be attacked militarily if it did not meet its international obligations to curb its nuclear program.

Tehran has achieved full proficiency in the nuclear fuel cycle, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated Tuesday. He also said that dialogue and friendship - not threats - were the right way to deal with Iran.

More than 40,000 people gathered at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima Monday to remember the victims of the first U.S. nuclear bomb attack in 1945.

The text of a historic civilian nuclear agreement between India and the United States has been released, a week after the deal was announced. As VOA's Steve Herman reports from the Indian capital, the document skirts the delicate issue of what would happen if India conducted another nuclear weapons test.

Iran will resume talks on its controversial nuclear program with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the Austrian capital Vienna Tuesday, an Iranian envoy to the IAEA said.

North Korea reaffirmed its commitment to nuclear disarmament at six-nation talks on its nuclear program, which resumed in Beijing Wednesday, a Russian diplomat said.

Iran says it hopes to settle all its differences with the UN's atomic watchdog over the country's nuclear program within the next two months. But even as Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said today that Tehran hopes to resolve outstanding questions, he stressed that Iran's nuclear activities, including uranium enrichment, will continue.

The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says Iran has lifted its ban on visits to a nuclear facility by UN experts. The IAEA said Iran would now allow its inspectors to visit the Arak reactor this month.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran has slowed the expansion of its nuclear enrichment capabilities.

The United States and Russia vowed Tuesday to pursue further cuts in their strategic nuclear arsenals and to take new steps to limit weapons proliferation. The announcement was a follow-on to the talks between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin Sunday and Monday in Kennebunkport, Maine.

In another step aimed at increasing the economic cost to Iran of its controversial nuclear enrichment program, a key congressional panel has approved legislation to impose sanctions on Iran's energy sector.