May 2, 2003	Friday	Safar 29, 1424

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NEW DELHI, May 1: The United States wants to stop the erosion of the international security architecture and to put an end to the spread of nuclear weapons, in which the India-Pakistan situation is “truly frightening”, Press trust of India reported on Thursday.

It quoted United States Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as saying: “You will see India and Pakistan with a thousand-mile shared border and a 50-year history of enmity and war “a situation that is truly frightening when you add into the mix nuclear weapons outside the system of international restraints.”

Mr Armitage, due to visit the two countries next week, was speaking to the National Defence University on Wednesday.

On North Korea, he said it was a blighted nation led by a dictator who defied his international commitments and fiddled with nuclear threats.

“And you will see Iran where an entire generation is ready to change, while elements of a violent and backward past look to buy and to build weapons of mass destruction despite their solemn obligations to the contrary,” Mr Armitage said.