World without nuclear arms possible-pope (2)

(ANSA) - Vatican City, March 28 - Pope Francis has said a world without nuclear weapons is possible in a message to the United Nations conference seeking to bring this about. "It is an exercise in hope and it is my wish that it may also constitute a decisive step along the road towards a world without nuclear weapons," read the message to the United Nations Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination, the first part of which is taking place in New York. "Although this is a significantly complex and long-term goal, it is not beyond our reach". He pointed out that money currently spent on nuclear weapons could be used for "the promotion of peace and integral human development, as well as the fight against poverty".
    "An ethics and a law based on the threat of mutual destruction - and possibly the destruction of all mankind - are contradictory to the very spirit of the United Nations," he said.
    "We must therefore commit ourselves to a world without nuclear weapons, by fully implementing the Non-Proliferation Treaty, both in letter and spirit".