WH: Ukraine to Get Rid of High Enriched Uranium

The White House announced Monday that Ukraine was giving up all its highly enriched uranium, marking success for a major U.S. arms control initiative shortly before President Barack Obama opens a conference on locking down nuclear materials.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Ukrainian stockpile, sufficient for several nuclear weapons, would be transferred to the United States for reprocessing by 2012.

The new Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovich, had just wrapped up a pre-conference meeting with Obama when the announcement was made.

The U.S. "has been trying to make this happen for more than 10 years," Gibbs said.

Ukraine was left with major nuclear materials when the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991. It is unclear where the materials will be sent, Gibbs said.

When the conference begins Monday afternoon, prime ministers and top officials from 47 countries will join Obama at his nuclear proliferation summit, the largest assembly hosted by a U.S. leader since the founding conference of the United Nations in 1945.

Obama wants world leaders to confront the threat of nuclear arms falling into the hands of terrorists -- a specter he labels "the single biggest threat to U.S. security." And he's looking at the high-profile security forum here to help him reach his goal of ensuring that all nuclear materials worldwide are secured from theft or diversion within four years.

Obama began the day with a series of meetings with international visitors, including Jordan's King Abdullah II. The Malaysian, Armenian and Chinese leaders also were on the schedule.

On the eve of the meeting, Obama said that nuclear materials in the hands of al Qaeda or another terrorist group "could change the security landscape in this country and around the world for years to come."