‘He must convince President Zardari to accept more assistance and embrace cooperation,’ said Republican Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Lugar, a leading US foreign policy voice, cited global concerns that unrest in Pakistan could lead to its nuclear weapons, or the raw materials for chemical or biological weapons, ‘falling into the wrong hands.’

‘President Obama must use this opportunity to gain clarification on the status and security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons, chemical weapons precursors, and pathogen samples,’ said Lugar.

Zardari was in Washington for three-way talks with Obama and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

Lugar urged the expansion into Pakistan of the Nunn-Lugar counterproliferation regime conceived at the fall of the Soviet Union to keep Moscow's weapons out of the hands of rogue states or terrorists.

Lugar pointed to the global concern over the spread of so-called ‘swine flu’ and underlined: ‘Imagine if the spread were intentional, not natural, and the virus's lethality had been artificially enhanced.’

‘Pakistan has many dangerous diseases and pathogens under its control. The Nunn-Lugar program can help secure the pathogen strains to ensure they do not fall into the wrong hands,’ he said.

‘Equally important, the US can assist Pakistan in establishing a system designed to detect, characterise and respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases,’ said the senator.—AFP