By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama will chair a historic meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that is expected to ask nations with nuclear weapons to scrap their deadly arsenals.
When the leaders of the 15-nation council gather at U.N. headquarters in midtown Manhattan, Obama will preside over the meeting, the first time a U.S. president has chaired a Security Council summit since the elite panel was established in 1946.
Diplomats said council members were expected to unanimously adopt a U.S.-drafted resolution that declares there is a "need to pursue further efforts in the sphere of nuclear disarmament" and urges all countries that have not signed the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to do so.
The council meeting, which takes place on the second day of the annual U.N. General Assembly session, will be the fifth time the Security Council has met at the level of heads of state and government. It will also be the first council summit to focus exclusively on nuclear proliferation and disarmament.
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