The first meeting of the newly-established International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament is to be held in Sydney on Monday.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd proposed the ICNND in June after visiting Hiroshima in Japan, which had been devastated by a nuclear bomb at the end of the Second World War.
Mr Rudd last month said the commission had a two-year mandate to reinvigorate the global debate on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and for nuclear disarmament.
It would seek to shape a consensus in the lead-up to a 2010 conference reviewing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The commission is co-chaired by former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans, and former foreign minister Yoriko Kawaguchi of Japan.
A total of 13 commissioners have been announced, with most to attend the two-day meeting starting in Sydney.
They include Ali Alatas from Indonesia, Alexei Arbatov from Russia, Jehangir Karamat from Pakistan, former US secretary of defence William Perry and China's Wang Yingfan.
