WASHINGTON, Feb 18: The State Department said on Wednesday that the US administration would first like to see how Pakistan tackles the current crisis before deciding whether to re-impose nuclear-related sanctions on the country.

Asked what the department's views were on re-imposing nuclear-related sanctions on Pakistan, spokesman Richard Boucher said: "I would not speculate on that at this point. I think first we need to see what happened and what the actions of the Pakistani government would be, and I couldn't speculate at this moment."

The spokesman also stated that the United States expected Pakistan to share the information it had collected while interrogating Dr A. Q. Khan and other members of the network involved in nuclear smuggling.

In a transcript released on Wednesday, the department's spokesman Boucher also indicated that US officials had been discussing the issue of nuclear proliferation with Pakistan for "almost a year and a half, including some discussions of the activities of Mr A.Q. Khan."

The wide-ranging briefing covered various aspects of the nuclear issue and indicated a slight change in Washington's tone. In previous briefings, both the White House and the State Department extended unequivocal support to Pakistan's position that it were individual scientists, and not the government, who indulged in nuclear proliferation.

While the US administration still supports this position, in the latest briefing the State Department spokesman also explained what the US administration expects Pakistan to do now.

"As far as sharing of information we look forward to hearing from the Pakistani government about the facts as they have developed them during the course of their investigation," said Mr Boucher.

"That's important to us, for all of us in the international community, to be able to track down this network and see where it leads and make sure we can follow up and root out the network wherever it exists," he added.