Pakistan 'most dangerous country' of the world: US Rep leader

WASHINGTON: Stating that Pakistan is the "most dangerous country" of the world, a top Republican leader on Sunday said that the rapidly increasing influence of the Taliban in that country may break its back.

"I think, personally, that Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world," Republican leader and the former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich told the Fox News channel in an interview.

Gingrich said Pakistan today has more nuclear weapons available than Iran or Korea will have in a decade. "We don't know what's going to happen there," he said.

"What people have to worry about is not that the Taliban is going to come out in the open field with an army. What they have to worry about is that every week that goes by more and more Islamist extremists in the cities are migrating to join the Taliban. And you may presently see an explosion in the cities," Gingrich argued.

He said Pakistan is now a country that has nuclear weapons and "hates" India, next door, "doesn't particularly" like Afghanistan because its President Hamid Karzai was educated in India and has a deep distrust of the US.

"I think people have to understand how dangerous this is," he added.