Nuclear summit leaves out Indo-Pak question

NEW YORK: The nuclear security summit in the US will give priority to preventing terrorists from getting hold of atomic weapons but will skip the "politically divisive" issue of South Asian nukes, a leading daily here said today.

"The single biggest threat to US security, both short term, medium term and long term, would be the possibility of a terrorist organisation obtaining a nuclear weapon," said President Barack Obama, who has convened the two-day meet being attended by 47 heads of state and leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"But for all its symbolism and ceremony, this meeting has quite limited goals: seeking ways to better secure existing supplies of bomb-usable plutonium and highly enriched uranium.

"The problem that India and Pakistan represent, though, is deliberately not on the agenda," the New York Times said.

Administration officials say that taking up the Pakistan-India arms race at the summit meeting would be "too politically divisive," the paper said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, who had a bilateral meeting with Obama yesterday, said the US has reaffirmed its confidence in the safety of Pakistan's nuclear programme.

"I thanked President Obama for his expression of firm confidence in our nuclear programme," he told Pakistani newsmen in Washington.

The Pakistani leader stated it is in only in the media that sometimes concerns are expressed about the safety of Pakistani nuclear weapons. "Let me assure you that Pakistan's nuclear assets are in safe hands," he was quoted as saying by Pakistan's official APP news agency.