UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned on Sunday of the danger of a "cascade" of nuclear proliferation unless new steps are taken to prevent it and called for help to stop the killings in Darfur. Annan told a conference of defence ministers and security experts "the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has helped prevent a cascade of nuclear proliferation. "But unless new steps are taken now, we might face such a cascade very soon," he said. Annan said a high-level panel which has proposed far-reaching reforms of the United Nations has also made "many forward-looking recommendations" to beef up the system to prevent states from developing nuclear weapons. Without making direct reference to the current nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea, Annan said: "Member states must summon the will to act to strengthen the non-proliferation regime."On Darfur, Annan called on NATO and the European Union to take action in the western Sudanese region to end violence between ethnic minority rebels and government-backed forces. A UN panel found that the civilian population in Darfur "has been brutalised by war crimes, which may well amount to crimes against humanity," Annan said. "People are dying, every single day, while we fail to protect them. Additional measures are urgently required. Those organisations with real capacity - and NATO as well as the EU are well represented in this room - must give serious consideration to what, in practical terms, they can do to help end this tragedy," Annan said. "Remember this: our current collective shortcomings are measured in lives lost," he added. Annan saluted the work of the 1,850 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, but said other international bodies must act as quickly as possible in a region where tens of thousands have died and 1.6 million have been displaced.
