THE US President, George Bush, has issued a statement marking the 40th anniversary of the United Nations non-proliferation treaty but omitted any mention of the initiative of the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, for a special commission to advance the issue worldwide.

The Bush Administration has yet to publicly comment on Mr Rudd's new commission, to be co-chaired by the former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans.

Despite repeated requests by the Herald to the White House over the past month for its views on the issue, the response has been "no comment".

However, behind the scenes there has been surprise and irritation that Australia did not discuss the initiative with the US before going public, especially as the US, with Russia, has the two largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

A State Department source said the Administration was mystified by the oversight but had decided to put it down to a new government that was still finding its feet. However, the official warned that if Australia thought it would be possible to get the US to reduce its nuclear arsenal further, beyond reductions made as a result of the most recent Moscow Treaty, it was fooling itself.

In the statement on Tuesday to mark the 40th anniversary of the treaty, Mr Bush reaffirmed "the strong support of the United States for the treaty and our commitment to work diligently to strengthen it further" but made no mention of further weapons reductions by the US.

But against the backdrop of North Korea abandoning its nuclear program and Iran refusing to co-operate with international inspectors, President Bush urged the world to renew the pressure for international enforcement.

The issue is now doubly pressing as several countries, including the US, India and China, are considering expanding their civilian nuclear programs to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.

The non-proliferation treaty signed in 1968 allowed the five countries that had tested nuclear weapons - the US, the Soviet Union, China, France and Britain - to be declared nuclear states, but obliged them to reduce their capabilities.

Anne Davies