US, Iraq reach nuclear compromise

The United States and Iraq have reached a compromise in a dispute that was holding up a key agreement on the future of nuclear arms control.

The Canadian ambassador to the United Nations conference, who mediated between the two sides, said the last piece of the puzzle was now complete.

No details of the compromise have been given, but the dispute centred on Washington's allegations that Iraq has been trying to develop nuclear arms.

The issue prevented the conference from ending on Friday as scheduled.

The one-hundred-and-eighty-seven delegates to the conference have spent the past month reviewing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service