"Too little attention has been paid to nonproliferation issues in the run-up to the G8 summit," Michele Flournoy, senior advisor for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Wednesday in a press conference at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"To prevent weapons of mass destruction from falling into the hands of terrorists is really the no. 1 security threat that we face today."

While Russia may not be able to lead next year's G8 summit in discussing issues of democracy and aid to the extent that a country like the United Kingdom can, it can easily lead discussions on expanding nonproliferation efforts and addressing nuclear security issues, said senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment Rose Gottemoeller, who collaborated with the U.S. National and Russian Academies of Sciences in preparing recommendations for strengthening U.S. and Russian cooperation on nonproliferation strategies.

"It is a critical issue, not just for Russian security but for U.S. and Russian relations and for global security," Blake Marshall, executive vice president of the U.S.-Russia Business Council, told United Press International.

"It certainly deserves top tier presidential attention, the focused efforts of both countries bilaterally and the entire G8 community throwing its weight behind it."

Partnership between the U.S. and Russia is essential for resolution of legal and bureaucratic disputes that have stalled nonproliferation progress, said Lara Holgate, vice president of the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

"If Russia is not behaving in a way that creates partnership with the rest of the world then these problems cannot be solved, not only because of the large quantity of the materials that are in question and weapons in terms of their security but also because of Russia's critical relationships, technical capabilities and other roles around the world," she said.

Disputes between the U.S. and Russia over the level of liability protection for U.S. government contractors working on nuclear disarmament projects in Russia is one reason for the lack of recent progress, Gottemoeller said.

Tension has also mounted over U.S. attempts to access sensitive military sites in Russia in order to ensure nuclear disarmament is occurring and money is being properly spent, Gottemoeller said. The report recommends that the U.S. government tailor their access requests in Russia very narrowly and acknowledge Russia's security needs.

"Russia faces its own security challenges and whatever regulations it needs to put in place to limit access would be understandable, Marshall said. "But that access limitation shouldn't shut down the demilitarization and nonproliferation programs."

The delays caused by the disputes have left nuclear materials susceptible to terrorist activities, Flournoy said, adding that there has been evidence of al-Qaida attempts to infiltrate Russian sites.

"We should try to move as quickly as possible to resolve the access disputes and ensure that we can get security upgrades to all the Russian facilities that have nuclear materials," she said.

Currently only 46 percent of vulnerable nuclear material sites in Russia have received essential security upgrades, Flournoy said. "Let's at least let those initial upgrades be applied at all facilities so we have a slightly higher level of confidence even if we can't get immediate access to verify that work."

Nuclear nonproliferation was last highlighted at the G8 summit in Kananaskis, Canada in 2002, during which a Global Partnership of countries was created to protect against the threat of terrorist acquisitions of weapons of mass destruction and related technologies.

Partnership countries then set a goal of pledging $20 billion to fund disarmament projects in vulnerable nuclear sites including Russia, but to date only $17 billion of that money has actually been pledged, Flournoy said.

"Progress has hit something of a plateau in recent years, and there is an awful lot of remaining important work to be done," Marshall said.

Gottemoeller urged Russian president Vladimir Putin to use his tenure as G8 chairman to strengthen Russia's role as a partner in nonproliferation efforts and funding.

"It is time that the United States and Russia work fully as equal partners in setting priorities, managing joint projects and putting resources on the table," she said.

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