WASHINGTON, Feb 16: The United States has taken a view of 'exceptionalism' that Israel cannot be treated by the norms on nuclear proliferation , so the best approach is not to talk about it at all, an Israeli academic said at a weekend seminar here.

Avnar Cohen, former co-director of the Project on Nuclear Arms Control in the Middle East, said the US had a responsibility to disarm Israel. "Unfortunately, this administrator does not recognise the responsibility."

The discussion at Washington's Nuclear Research Institute focused on the refusal of India, Israel and Pakistan to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Besides Mr Cohen, Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy of Pakistan and Gautam Adhikari of India spoke about their countries' nuclear capabilities.

Mr Cohen said Israelis viewed the subject of nuclear weapons in Israel as one not to be discussed. The author of "Israel's Last Taboo" said Israel's official position of neither confirming nor denying the presence of nuclear weapons was ingrained in the national culture. "The issue cannot be discussed" in Israel, he said.

Israel is the sixth nuclear nation in the world, Mr Cohen said, more in the league of France and Britain than India and Pakistan. Mr Cohen admitted that it made some sense in the mid-1950s when Israel was in its infancy for the nation to tell others in the Middle East about its nuclear strategy and to obtain a nuclear bomb. Now, however, it makes little sense to still possess nuclear weapons.

Dr Hoodbhoy, who teaches physics at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, told the seminar that most Pakistanis felt the government was not telling them the entire story.

"There is a serious credibility gap at the moment," he said. Dr Hoodbhoy explained that there was a general feeling of anger, grief and betrayal in Pakistan directed towards the government for allegedly buckling under US pressure to persecute Dr Khan.

If President Gen Pervez Musharraf had kept silent, Pakistan would have been sanctioned, leading the economy in a downward spiral. Gautam Adhikari, the former executive editor of the Times of India, said that there was mounting alarm over the direction in which Pakistan was heading.