asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he is prepared on behalf of the Government to call on all members of NATO and representatives of the USSR to proceed with a programme for nuclear disarmament as a matter of urgency; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

The Government have consistently stressed the need for sustained and determined efforts by all states, particularly those most heavily armed, to negotiate concrete measures of arms control and disarmament.

The need for the USA and the Soviet Union to pursue with determination the negotiations on intermediate range and strategic nuclear forces was a main theme of the address by my colleague Deputy Barry to the thirty eighth session of the UN General Assembly.

As is known to the Deputy, these negotiations as well as the Vienna talks on reductions of conventional forces, have since been suspended.

Consequently, in the address of my colleague to the Conference on Disarmament in Europe, in Stockholm today he expressed the Government's concern that these negotiations should resume and should do so with a genuine and manifest aim of succeeding and thereby bringing about substantial reductions of nuclear weapons and conventional forces to the lowest possible level.

He also stressed the linkage between the success of these talks and the wider goal of rebuilding security and confidence in Europe.