Obama warns of nuclear-armed terrorists

WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama warned of a growing risk of nuclear attacks by terrorists.

"The risk of nuclear attack has gone up," Obama said Tuesday at a 47-nation nuclear security summit in Washington. "Terrorist networks such as al-Qaida have tried to acquire the material for a nuclear weapon and, if they ever succeeded, they would surely use it."

He added: "Were they to do so, it would be a catastrophe for the world, causing extraordinary loss of life and striking a major blow at global peace and stability."

Obama urged his fellow leaders to take measures to prevent nuclear material from falling into the wrong hands.

The summit in Washington comes a week after the United States and Russia signed a nuclear weapons reduction treaty and only a few days after Obama softened the U.S. nuclear policy, vowing not to use nuclear weapons against countries that don't have them.

The new policy wouldn't spare Iran or North Korea, neither of which was invited to the summit because of the controversy surrounding their nuclear programs. Iran will have its own nuclear security summit this weekend.