Washington (PTI): US President Barack Obama has welcomed the agreement at the Conference on Disarmament to begin negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-off Treat (FMCT), which will end production of fissile materials for use in atomic bomb.

"There is no greater security challenge in the world today than turning the tide on nuclear-proliferation, and pursuing the goal of a nuclear-free world," Obama said in a statement.

A verified cut off treaty was an essential element of Obama's vision for a world free of nuclear weapons. Obama The treaty would help to cap nuclear arsenals, strengthen the consensus underlying the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and deny terrorists access to nuclear materials, he added.

"Today's decision ends more than a decade of inactivity in the Conference on Disarmament, and signals a commitment to work together on this fundamental global challenge," he said.

Observing that it was good to see the conference at work again, Obama asserted that he was committed to consult and cooperate with the governments represented at the conference to complete this treaty as soon as possible.