Pakistan seeks to allay fears on nuclear security

By Simon Cameron-Moore

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has boosted security at nuclear facilities but there is no chance of Islamist militants getting their hands on atomic weapons, the official in charge of the country's strategic arsenal said on Saturday.

"We are capable of thwarting all types of threats, whether these be insider, outsider, or a combination," Retired Lieutenant-General Khalid Kidwai told foreign journalists.

He said security was stepped up after militants began more actively targeting the military in a wave of suicide attacks in the past year, but there was no specific threat.

"The state of alertness has gone up," said Kidwai, who remained director-general of the Strategic Plans Division (SPD) despite retiring from the army last October.

However, no conspiracy or plot related to nuclear facilities had ever been uncovered, he said, although al Qaeda in the past had shown interest in acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Kidwai, echoing President Pervez Musharraf in Europe this week, dismissed any idea of an "extremist takeover" of either Pakistan's government or its nuclear weapons.

"There is no conceivable scenario, political or violent in which Pakistan will fall to the extremist of the al Qaeda or Taliban type," Kidwai said in the briefing given at the SPD offices in Rawalpindi, an army town near Islamabad.

Pakistan has launched a public relations offensive to counter what it regards as scaremongering over the security of its nuclear weapons because of threats from al Qaeda and its allies, and the political uncertainty gripping the country.