For the past month, diplomats from states that signed the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty have been taking stock of the landmark pact against the spread of atomic weapons. They have been unable to agree on any measures that could strengthen the treaty.

"It's basically a failure," said one senior diplomat at the conference.

Hundreds of delegates from across the globe have heard the steady beat of Yasuda's drum as they entered the United Nations every day since the NPT review meeting began on May 2.

Yasuda has friends who suffered in the US atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But she says her presence outside the UN building is a "peace vigil" in support of the NPT, not a protest.

Yasuda's drumming will cease on Friday, the last day of the 2005 NPT Review Conference.

Inside the United Nations, diplomats use words like "failure," "collapse," and "disaster" to describe the conference. Participants had hoped to agree on steps to stop countries with nuclear weapons ambitions from getting sensitive technology and to persuade the five NPT members with nuclear arms to scrap their stockpiles of the world's deadliest weapons.

Diplomats from developing countries and nuclear activists place the burden of the blame on the United States, which they accuse of reneging on previous disarmament commitments.

Several diplomats said France was Washington's main ally in blocking references to the disarmament pledges the weapon states made at the last NPT review meetings in 1995 and 2000.

Under the treaty, the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain pledged to eventually disarm, while the other signatories agreed to pursue only peaceful nuclear technology.

US SAYS BELIEVES IN NPT

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher denied the conference had been a failure and said Washington was committed to nonproliferation.

"The United States has shown by its actions and by its efforts ... we do believe in the (NPT), and we're focused on the specific steps to carry it out," he said.

"I suppose pointing fingers at the United States is a popular thing to do," Boucher said. A recent arms reduction agreement with Moscow showed Washington was committed to reducing its weapons arsenal "down to very low levels," he said.

Participants said Egypt and Iran also helped prevent the conference from accomplishing much of anything.

Iran did not want any critical statements about its own NPT breaches, while Egypt wanted the conference to demand Israel sign the NPT and give up its assumed nuclear arsenal.

Israel, like nuclear-armed Pakistan and India, has never signed the treaty. It has an estimated 200 nuclear warheads. North Korea, which says it has the bomb, withdraw from the treaty in 2002.

Since Cairo could not achieve its goal, it forged what one arms expert called an "unholy alliance" with Tehran, Washington and Paris to block any hard outcome from the review.

Failure of the conference "doesn't mean the NPT has failed or that the process has failed," the senior diplomat said. "It means people don't have the political will."

The Buddhist nun said the world could only get rid of nuclear weapons by building more trust.

"Where does this nuclear bomb come from? From fear, not trust," Yasuda said. "You have to trust."