New York: Noting thatmilitary spending world over has risen to a whopping 1.2 trillion dollars, UNSecretary General Ban Ki-moon has said preventing further expansion of nucleararsenals and reducing weapon stockpiles should be the key aims of this year'sConference on Disarmament.

In a message to the first session of the Conference yesterday, Ban said the aimof the discussion should be two-fold accelerate the reduction of existing weapon stockpile and moving towardshalting the production of fissile materials which can be used for producingatomic weapons.

"Maintaining the moratorium on nuclear tests is equally important, andshould be in effect at least till the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treatyenters into full force," he said, urging all States that have not yet doneso to sign or ratify that pact.

"Preventing an arms race in space also continues to be an urgentchallenge," he added.

Ban told the 65-member States of the Conference, the world's sole multilateralforum for disarmament negotiations, that stakes are high in dealing with theseissues as massive amounts of money spent on arms could be better utilized inhelping to fund the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to drastically reducepoverty and other global ills by 2015.