"We all believe in the nonproliferation treaty, we all want to move forward", Haley said.

"We would all love to see the day when nuclear weapons were no longer needed", Haley said in a message on her Twitter account last week along with photographs of a meeting with like-minded ambassadors.

The push for a ban was announced in October by 123 United Nations members who say the threat of atomic disaster is growing thanks to tensions fanned by North Korea's nuclear weapons programme and an unpredictable new administration in Washington.

"In this day and age we can't say honestly that we can protect our people by allowing the bad actors to have them", Haley told reporters outside the General Assembly chamber where the meeting on the negotiations was taking place.

With the support of more than 120 countries, the UN General Assembly approved the negotiation of a treaty banning nuclear weapons in October of 2016.

In October, a United Nations resolution calling for a global conference to find a legal process to ban the manufacture, possession, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons passed in a 123-38 vote with 16 abstentions. U.S. and French representatives explained their countries' opposition in October citing a need to make progress in stages, without disturbing the current strategic balance of weapons or jeopardizing nuclear deterrence.

The General Assembly nearly overwhelmingly called for a new treaty, with a vote of 113 for, 35 opposed and 13 countries abstaining. "We will continue to pursue realistic and effective disarmament measures and will work to create a security environment conducive to the elimination of nuclear weapons".

UN Secretary-General deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said that beginning of negotiations on a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons is a vital initial step for global disarmament.

Several countries - including the US, France and United Kingdom, who are nuclear powers - announced Monday that they were boycotting the Nuclear Weapons Convention. The UN action followed a series of fact-finding conferences on the unacceptable humanitarian cost of any nuclear weapons use and the role a prohibition on nuclear weapons would have in strengthening global humanitarian law.

Japan - the only country to have suffered in the atomic bombings of 1945 - also voted against the negotiations and said lack of consensus may undermine efforts of nuclear disarmament. "Is there anyone that believes that North Korea would agree to abandon nuclear weapons?" "And now there are raised worries with the new U.S. president".

But his administration strongly encouraged North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies to vote against this year's United Nations negotiations, saying a ban would obstruct cooperation to respond to nuclear threats from adversaries. While those, in any country, who profit from the nuclear arms industry will vigorously resist any ban treaty, it is certain that a nuclear exchange, initiated by uninformed or insane leaders, must be prevented. Immediately after this, President Donald Trump tweeted that the US must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability.

Ban supporters point to successful grassroots movements that led to the prohibition of landmines in 1997 and cluster munitions in 2008 as a model for the future of nuclear disarmament.