William Hague will today commit an incoming Tory government to work with the new US president to tackle "a new age of nuclear insecurity" and lead the fight against nuclear proliferation, write George Parker and Jean Eaglesham .

He fears the world may be living through a short-lived golden period where people are free from the threat of nuclear weapons, an era which started with the fall of the iron curtain and which could end in the next decade, as more states acquire nuclear weapons.