An international nuclear nonproliferation panel reached an agreement on its nuclear arms reduction action plans toward a world free of nuclear weapons at the final session of its three-day meeting in Hiroshima, the co-chairs of the panel said.

The International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, however, refrained from disclosing a target figure for reducing nuclear warheads in the action plans, with panel co-chair Yoriko Kawaguchi citing the commission’s obligation to report to the prime ministers and foreign ministers of Australia and Japan ahead of the media.

Kawaguchi, a former Japanese foreign minister, told a press conference, “I think it is one of the most comprehensive reports of its kind,” referring to the contents of the commission’s final report to be released in January in the hope of building an international consensus in the run-up to a nonproliferation treaty review conference in May.

The commission, co-chaired by Kawaguchi and former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, apparently decided to back off from its initially intended reduction goal due to objections from some nuclear armed states but the figure is “realistic yet ambitious,” Kawaguchi told reporters on Tuesday adding that the atomic-bomb survivors would be satisfied with the figure.

“Anybody reading this report will have a clear idea what the various responsibilities are, who should be doing what and when. That makes it a very useful guide and a handbook for policymakers,” Evans told Kyodo news after the conference.

The report contains a three-phase action agenda for the short, medium and long terms covering the periods to 2012, 2025 and beyond 2025 to achieve its key recommendations.

A draft report compiled previously called for reducing the number of nuclear warheads in the world from more than 20,000 at present to 1,000 or fewer by 2025, while urging every nuclear state to commit to a no-first-use doctrine by that year.

The commission members also agreed to stipulate in the final report another nuclear doctrine linked to no-first-use, under which all nuclear armed states would declare by 2012 that the sole purpose of retaining their nuclear arsenals is to deter others from using such weapons against them or their allies.

George Perkovich, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a member of the commission’s advisory board, described a draft of the report that the commission is preparing to issue as “sophisticated, realistic yet progressive.”

The draft “is far more detailed and comprehensive than any other commission’s” such as the Canberra Commission, Parkovich said.

The Canberra Commission, launched by the Australian government, called for five nuclear powers — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — to take immediate actions to halt nuclear testing and adopt a no-first-use nuclear doctrine in its report released in 1996 but did not set a specific timetable.