ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 10, 1996 TAG: 9606100023
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEIJING
SOURCE: Associated Press
Hours after detonating an underground nuclear blast Saturday, China promised that it would test its atomic arsenal just once more before joining an international ban on such explosions.
The test and announcement came two days after China abandoned its demand that a global test ban treaty under negotiation allow nuclear explosions for such civilian uses as large construction projects.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed in a statement that it conducted a nuclear test Saturday but gave no details. It said China's moratorium on testing would take effect after one more test is conducted, sometime before September.
The promise to end testing at the Lop Nor site in the remote desert of northwestern Xinjiang province caps an international campaign to gain China's compliance with a global nuclear testing moratorium. After France ended its nuclear testing program in January, China was the only nuclear power still testing.
``China will continue to work with other countries for the conclusion, within this year, of a fair, reasonable and verifiable treaty with universal adherence and unlimited duration,'' said the Foreign Ministry statement.
Australian scientists who monitored Saturday's test, the first recorded since Aug. 17 last year, said it was conducted at 10:56 a.m.
The underground blast, at least the 44th detected at Lop Nor since testing began there in 1964, was estimated between 20 to 80 kilotons, according to the Australian Seismological Center and the Australian Geological Survey Organization. The bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 was about 12.5 kilotons.
The Foreign Ministry said China's final tests - which Western analysts say are aimed at developing lighter, more powerful weapons - were the minimum necessary to ensure its interests in the face of huge nuclear stockpiles and the ``threat of a nuclear war.''
China insists it has only a limited number of nuclear weapons and they are strictly for self defense. It is believed to have the smallest arsenal of all the nuclear powers, with about 250 to 300 nuclear warheads.
The other known nuclear powers are the United States, Britain, France and Russia, although Israel, India and Pakistan are believed to have a nuclear capability.
Earlier, Beijing had said it would abide by the nuclear test ban treaty once it took effect, but it had argued for a provision to allow testing for nonmilitary reasons such as massive construction projects or power generation. Isolated after France dropped its test program, China dropped the demand Thursday.
That step was expected to aid efforts to meet a June 28 deadline for concluding the test ban treaty, although disagreement remains about China's reluctance to allow on-site inspections of nuclear facilities.
Despite the promise that the end of testing is near, several nations and the international environmental organization Greenpeace criticized Saturday's blast.
``The United States deeply regrets this action,'' White House spokesman Mike McCurry said. ``We urge China to refrain from further nuclear tests and to join in a global moratorium as we work to complete and sign a comprehensive test ban treaty by September.''
The governments of Australia and Japan summoned Chinese embassy officials to receive formal protests. Greenpeace said its vessel MV Greenpeace left Manila on Saturday morning for Shanghai to protest China's tests - despite warnings from Chinese officials.
The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only two cities to suffer atomic attacks, also objected.
``Now that France has announced an end to nuclear tests, we certainly cannot accept China's attitude of being the only country to run counter to the world trend,'' said Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito.
Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto criticized the test, but stopped short of stopping a program of low-interest loans to China, which totaled $1.3 billion last year.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 linesby CNB