WASHINGTON, May 29: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that the United States will not support a change of government in Pakistan except through a constitutional process.

"We would not be supportive of any effort to change the government of Pakistan in a way that is not part of the political process or constitutionally," Mr Powell told India's NDTV in an interview released by his office in Washington on Saturday.

The US secretary of state made this unusually strong statement of support for the Musharraf government when the interviewer asked him if Washington had "a plan B" to ensure that a change in Islamabad does not hurt US interests in Pakistan.

The interviewer also sought Mr Powell's comments on President Pervez Musharraf's recent interview which quoted him as saying that some "lower-ranking" people from the army and the air force had been detained in connection with two assassination attempts on him in December.

Responding to these queries, Mr Powell not only made it clear that Washington would not support a change of government in Islamabad but also praised Gen Musharraf's role in cementing Pakistan's ties with the United States.

Mr Powell also put up a strong defence for Pakistan's ability to protect its nuclear weapons when the interviewer asked if he could guarantee that Islamabad's nuclear arsenal will not fall into the wrong hands, particularly after the discovery of the Khan network.

"I think it's very encouraging that President Musharraf has done a great deal to rip up A.Q. Khan's network of nuclear proliferation," he said.

When the interviewer insinuated that a change of government in Pakistan could cause its nuclear arsenal to fall into the wrong hands, Mr Powell said: "I really don't want to get into hypotheticals about what might happen, if other people were there, to the nuclear arsenal."

Mr Powell then gave a general warning on the dangers and responsibilities involved in maintaining a nuclear arsenal. "These are not simple weapons. They are the most complex and most dangerous weapons," he said.

Without mentioning India or Pakistan, Mr Powell said: "And any nation that has a nuclear arsenal has an obligation to its own people and to the international community to make sure that those arsenals are guarded carefully."