The United States on Friday circulated a draft Security Council resolution calling on all nations to cooperate to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

The text, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, is up for a vote during a special Security Council meeting on nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament.

President Barack Obama is scheduled to preside over the September 24 meeting, a day after he is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly session.

Although the draft does not explicitly refer to Iran or North Korea, it does point to recently adopted Security Council resolutions that imposes sanctions for their nuclear or ballistic activities.

The measure called on states that have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) "to comply fully with all their obligations under the treaty" and for others to become signatories "so as to achieve its universality at an early date, and in any case to adhere to its terms."

The NPT, which is up for review in May, is increasingly challenged by countries like Iran and North Korea that seek nuclear state status. The last NPT review conference ended in disarray in May 2005 with no agreement from its 189 signatory countries.

Israel, widely considered the Middle East's sole albeit undeclared nuclear power, is not party to the treaty. Nuclear-armed rival states India and Pakistan have also not signed, while North Korea withdrew from the treaty in 2003.

The resolution urged all countries to back efforts "to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to nuclear arms reduction and disarmament, and on a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control."

The move came six months after Obama delivered a speech in Prague calling for a world free of nuclear weapons.

Urging all nations to "refrain from conducting a nuclear test explosion," the text also pressed for more countries to join the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in order to "bring the treaty into force."

Drawn up in 1996, the CTBT has been signed by 181 countries and ratified by 149. But it needs to be ratified by nine others, including China and the United States, before coming into force.

The draft resolution "deplores the current major challenges to the non-proliferation regime that the Security Council has determined to be threats to international peace and security."

It also "demands that the parties concerned comply fully with their obligations under the relevant Security Council resolutions," a veiled allusion to Iran and North Korea.

Western governments and Israel have accused Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons under the cover of its civilian program.

Tehran denies the charge, saying it wants nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, a right recognized by the NPT.

The text pressed for stricter export control measures for nuclear technology and related sensitive materials.