Hu, Medvedev, Sarkozy, Merkel, among 38 leaders at summit

Apr 12, 2010, 15:48 GMT

Washington - Thirty-eight world leaders are expected to participate in the summit on nuclear security next week in Washington, which also includes top officials from nine other countries.

Leaders expected to attend include China's Hu Jintao, Russia's Dmitry Medvedev, Germany's Angela Merkel, France's Nicolas Sarkozy, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Pakistan's Yousuf Raza Gilani and India's Manmohan Singh.

Spain's Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who currently holds the chair of the European Union, is expected, as are Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, Felipe Calderon of Mexico and Sebastian Pinera of Chile.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will miss the gathering due to newly announced elections on May 6. Foreign Secretary David Miliband will represent him at the summit.

Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu is sending his deputy, Minister Dan Meridor. Israeli officials indicated concern that Netanyahu's presence would be exploited by Muslim countries, including Turkey and Egypt, to pressure Israel on its presumed nuclear programme and demand that it join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Israeli officials indicated.

Other countries attending include Algeria, Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, Georgia, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Poland, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Switzerland, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine and Vietnam.

The United Nations, the IAEA and the European Union will also be represented.

The White House has billed the event as the largest gathering of foreign leaders hosted by an American president in decades, and the first of its kind to so broadly address nuclear security.