17 May 2004	Monday	26 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

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ISLAMABAD, May 16: Pakistan has communicated to the international community that it would "accede to NPT only as a nuclear weapon state," knowledgeable sources told Dawn here on Sunday.

India, the sources said, had also moved from its original stance from objecting to the discriminatory nature of the NPT to simply telling the NPT community that New Delhi could not join the treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state.

However, the demand of the foreign ministers of Pakistan and India that both countries be recognized as "nuclear weapon states" have been rejected by the United States.

In a May 4 speech before the Third Session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2005 Review Conference, Assistant Secretary for Non-proliferation, John Wolf, made the US policy clear when he categorically ruled out the possibility of the US accepting "the status of either country as a nuclear weapon state under the NPT."

According to the US official, India and Pakistan remain ineligible under US law and policy for any significant assistance to their nuclear programmes. The increased efforts by the US in the region to pressurise Pakistan and India to sign the NPT as non-nuclear weapons states are part of the preparations for the NPT Review Conference to be held in New York in 2005.

During high-level visits, top US officials have been asking Pakistan not to conduct nuclear tests, to end the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons and to tighten export controls, all part of the NPT process.

Although Pakistan and India are not party to the NPT, the US focus in South Asia is not on compliance of NPT but on "preventative actions to deter proliferation and nuclear testing and to maintain an ongoing, active dialogue with the two nations."

Feeling the heat of tactical diplomatic "persuasion" efforts, Pakistan and India have changed their previously held official positions regarding the NPT, background interviews with foreign office officials revealed.

The sources said the NPT was irrelevant in its present form and the position adopted by Pakistan till recently that Islamabad would accede to the NPT if New Delhi also signed the treaty has now changed.

The sources said Pakistan had suggested a nuclear non- proliferation regime based on the present day realities which included recognition of the nuclear status of Islamabad and to meet the requirements of a new day and a new age.

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