US will use fissile material cut-off treaty to cap India, Pak nuclear programmes

C K Arora in Washington

US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Director John Holum visualises the possibility of capping the nuclear weapons programmes of India and Pakistan through the proposed fissile material cut-off treaty.

Negotiating such an accord ''is our best hope of capping the nuclear weapon potential of countries outside the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, including India and Pakistan," Holum said.

Some 184 countries have signed the NPT, leaving only six countries outside the pact. The NPT, under which non-nuclear weapons states forego nuclear weapons entirely and confirm it by putting their peaceful nuclear programmes under international safeguard, was made permanent in 1995.

''Now a major immediate priority, which we want to complete in March, is to further strengthen its safeguards -- adding now technologies and access, such an environmental monitoring away from declared facilities, to make sure that nuclear weapons programmes are not being concealed from inspectors,'' he added.

Holum said the decision to strengthen safeguards was made in 1993, after Iraq's clandestine nuclear programme was revealed, and it was to be completed in 1995.

''We are continuing to press hard, mainly now against resistance from some of our allies, who seem to be having trouble striking the right balance between the dangers of rogue state nuclear weapons and possible inconvenience to their nuclear plants,'' he added.

He said the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, completed last year and soon to be submitted to the US senate, would add a further barrier to the spread of nuclear weapons.

India, along with Bhutan and Libya, stayed away from the CTBT. It took the decision following the failure of the declared nuclear weapons states - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France -- to agree to set a time-table within which they destroy their weapons of mass destruction.

As a further barrier, Holum pointed out, US President Bill Clinton has directed that the US should intensify its efforts this year to negotiate the cut-off in the production of missile material for weapons.

UNI