JULIA Gillard will call for a parliamentary vote on a motion calling for nuclear armed countries - including our closest allies in the US and Britain - to destroy their atomic weapons.

The telegraph.com.au

It would be the first time the Australian parliament had adopted a resolution calling for global disarmament.

Ms Gillard has agreed to sponsor a motion into the parliament after pressure from Labor MPs on a parliamentary Committee on Treaties.

She will call for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to support the motion, which was supported by Greens members of the committee.

In a letter from Ms Gillard to the committee on June 15, the Prime Minister confirmed the government would adopt recommendation 21 of its Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament report.

The resolution calls for an immediate cut to all nuclear arsenals, starting with a ban on enrichment and the production of fissile material.

It is believed it was the second time the committee had written to Ms Gillard, after she ignored the first request earlier this year.

In one letter, it was suggested that if the Prime Minister did not want to do it, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd might move the resolution instead.

Ms Gillard finally responded this week, confirming that she would agree to introduce the motion.

"I am pleased to advise that the government intends to facilitate a motion in support of the abolition of nuclear weapons being considered in parliament," Ms Gillard said.

"I intend to move the motion and will invite the Leader of the Opposition to second it."

While previous governments have expressed support for nuclear disarmament, it would be the first time an Australian parliament had made a formal declaration in protest to nuclear weapons.

The government is believed to have briefed US and British governments about the plans for a formal motion condemning nuclear weapons.

The committee chair, Victorian Labor MP Kelvin Thomson, said it would be the first time the parliament had passed such a resolution.

"It will be a significant development assumed it is passed," he said.

The US and Russia last year agreed to further reduce their nuclear stockpiles.

President Obama early on in his leadership supported the idea of a world free of nuclear weapons.