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The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution calling for nuclear disarmament, in a session chaired by US President Barack Obama.

The resolution calls for further efforts to stop the spread of nuclear arms, to boost disarmament and to lower the risk of "nuclear terrorism".

It was the first time a US president had chaired a Security Council summit.

The resolution comes amid growing concerns among Western powers over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"The historic resolution we just adopted enshrines our shared commitment to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons," Mr Obama told the Security Council after the resolution was adopted.

He said the next year would be "absolutely critical in determining whether this resolution and our overall efforts to stop the spread and use of nuclear weapons are successful".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the resolution "a fresh start toward a new future".

'Proliferation risk'

The resolution does not specifically mention countries by name, such as North Korea and Iran, but reaffirms previous Security Council resolutions relating to their nuclear plans.

Iran's nuclear programme has been criticised by the US and five nations who are set to hold talks next week.

Iran says its nuclear ambitions are for peaceful energy purposes, but others fear it is developing weapons.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reflected those fears in his speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, saying that stopping Iran acquiring nuclear weapons was the world's most urgent task.

After the resolution was passed, Iran rejected allegations about its nuclear programme as "totally untrue" and reiterated its "readiness to engage in serious and constructive negotiations with interested parties".

The resolution commits member nations to work toward a world without nuclear weapons, and endorses a broad framework of actions to reduce global nuclear risks.

It also urges states to:

* join and comply with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
* refrain from testing nuclear weapons and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
* ensure safeguards of nuclear material and prevent trafficking

Mr Obama stressed that the US would play its part, seeking a new strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia and moving ahead with ratification of the test ban treaty.

"Although we averted a nuclear nightmare during the Cold War, we now face proliferation of a scope and complexity that demands new strategies and new approaches," Mr Obama said.

"Just one nuclear weapon exploded in a city, be it New York or Moscow, Tokyo or Beijing, London or Paris, could kill hundreds of thousands of people."

'Preposterous' allegations

Also on Thursday, a UN ministerial conference adopted a declaration urging compliance with the CTBT, which has been signed or ratified by 100 countries since 1996.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presence at the meeting marked the first US participation at the biannual conference since 1999, when the US Senate refused to ratify the treaty.

On Wednesday, the first day of the UN General Assembly, Iran's plans came under fire from several world leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Russia signalled that it might be prepared to soften its opposition to sanctions against Iran over its nuclear plans, though China, another Security Council member, said increasing pressure on Iran would not be effective.

But in a statement circulated outside the Security Council on Thursday, Iran said France and the UK had not complied with their own nuclear disarmament obligations, and were therefore not in a position to judge others.

It accused Mr Sarkozy of making "preposterous" claims, and said the UK "deliberately and cynically [had] ignored its legal commitments" to the NPT.

"Our commitment to non-proliferation remains intact," the statement said.

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- World leaders, many reeling from a year marked by global economic freefall and a growing threat from global warming and nuclear proliferation, exhorted one another Wednesday to work together to meet those challenges.

In his first remarks to the U.N. General Assembly, President Obama noted that he took office last January "at a time when many around the world had come to view America with skepticism and distrust."

He then sought to distance himself from the policies of his predecessor, noting that he had prohibited the use of torture, ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay to be closed and has been working to create a framework to combat terrorism "within the rule of law."

Obama called on world leaders to work together to effect the change needed. "No longer do we have the luxury of indulging our differences to the exclusion of the work that we must do together," he said.

He vowed to pursue an agreement with Russia to reduce the number of nuclear weapons, to combat nuclear smuggling and theft and to support the non-proliferation treaty.

He identified North Korea and Iran as countries whose governments "threaten to take us down this dangerous slope" and said he is committed to diplomacy in persuading them to live up to their obligations.

Obama called for "more progress" in the Middle East. "We continue to call on Palestinians to end incitement against Israel and we continue to emphasize that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements," he said to applause.

Obama left no doubt that he believes the danger posed by global warming is a real one. "Our responsibility to meet it must not be deferred. If we continue down our current course, every member of this assembly will see irreversible changes within their borders," he said.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi also called for world unity in confronting crises -- such as climate change and food shortages -- but he expressed ire at the world body and the United States.

In a 96-minute, rambling address in his first appearance before the United Nations, Gadhafi broached conspiracy theories, urged probes into U.S. military activities and took aim at the structure and the actions of the Security Council itself.

Dressed in a traditional Libyan cap and robe, he elaborated on what he said is the unfairness of the structure of the U.N. Security Council, which has five permanent members -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain, each with veto power.

"Are we equal in permanent seats?" Gadhafi asked. "No, we're not equals."

He said the Security Council has provided not security, but "terror and sanctions." No one should accept the resolutions of the Security Council, he said, adding that the body should be called the "terror council."

He also slammed U.S. military actions in places such as Panama, Vietnam and Grenada and called the invasion of Iraq "the mother of all evils."

On the Middle East, he said the solution for Israelis and Palestinians "is a democratic state without religious fanaticism" and said people on both sides want to live in one state.

Still, Gadhafi referred to Obama as "my son," and congratulated him on his first U.N. General Assembly speech.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced he is ready to work with other nations.

"Our nation is prepared to warmly shake all those hands that are honestly extended to us," he told the assembly. "We welcome real and human exchanges and stand ready to actively engage in fundamental global reforms."

He called for a "return to monotheism and justice," calling it "the greatest hope and opportunity in all ages and generations."

Ahmadinejad blamed the world economic crisis on capitalism, saying, "It is no longer possible to inject thousands of billions of dollars of unreal wealth into the world economy simply by printing worthless paper."

He added, "The engine of unbridled capitalism, with its unfair system of thought, has reached the end of the road and is unable to move."

He added that the time has passed for those people who outwardly espouse democracy and freedom yet who are simultaneously "violating the very principles to which they aspire."

Ahmadinejad then cited the United States, one of several countries critical of his country's nuclear ambitions, despite Iran's insistence that its program is intended solely for peaceful purposes.

He was critical of the situations in Gaza as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan, where "thousands of innocent people have been killed, injured or displaced, infrastructures have been destroyed and regional security has been seriously jeopardized."

By this time, the U.S. and Israeli representatives had left their seats.

Before his talk, and blocks away from the United Nations, more than 400 protesters toted anti-Ahmadinejad banners and demonstrated in front of the Iranian U.N. Mission.

"I am very angry," said Anna Amiri, an Iranian emigre who traveled from Dallas, Texas, to attend the rally. "We voted for Moussavi to have a change," she said, referring to Mir Hossein Moussavi, Ahmadinejad's main opponent in the election.

The results released by Iran said Ahmadinejad won by a wide margin, a conclusion that sparked street protests and violence.

At the U.N., French President Nicolas Sarkozy referred to Iran's leaders in his address, saying, "If they rely on a passive response from the international community in order to pursue their military nuclear program, they will be making a tragic mistake."

Addressing global warming and the economic crisis, Sarkozy said the world is on the threshold of an ecological disaster and called on its leaders to "invent a new world where the follies of yesterday" cannot be repeated.

Sarkozy said the world has already waited too long for globalization to be regulated, global warming to be fought and nuclear proliferation to be curbed.

He called for the Security Council to be expanded to include an African nation, a South American nation, India, Japan and Germany as permanent members.

"The legitimacy of the United Nations depends on this reform," he said.

He further called for reform of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and urged that their mission be redefined in the wake of the world economic crisis.

In his address, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown listed climate change, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, shared prosperity and the need to eradicate poverty as key issues that must be addressed.

"We must grasp this next set of challenges immediately," he said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, noting that 2010 marks the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II, took aim at those who deny the Holocaust happened and called for "firm and joint resistance to manifestations of neofascism."

He described Russia as prepared to "follow the path of reductions of nuclear weapons."

In the annual session's opening address, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged global leaders to work together to face many of the world's challenges: "Now is our time. A time to put the 'united' back into the United Nations. United in purpose. United in action."

He called for tackling "the threat of catastrophic climate change" and expressed hope that nations will succeed in dealing with the problem if they work together.

He touched on nuclear disarmament, too, saying, "Let us make this the year we agreed to banish the bomb."