The government is expected to omit the 2003 deadline for ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty when it submits a new resolution to the U.N. General Assembly this year, well-placed sources said.

The deadline is contained in a resolution that was adopted by a key committee of the General Assembly last year.

The Foreign Ministry believes it would be impossible to win U.S. support for a deadline for bringing the test-ban pact into force, given Washington's decision not to ratify it, the sources said Tuesday.