US strengthening non-proliferation: Rice

The United States has said that it has taken a number of steps towards strengthening the global non-proliferation regime, which was under strain, including signing the nuclear deal with India that would bring New Delhi into the non-proliferation framework for the first time.

"The United States and our partners are joining together to preserve the continued vitality of the global regime to prevent and counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The non-proliferation regime is now under more strain than at any time since it was established over 40 years ago," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in her address at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday.

"For our part, the United States is working to strengthen and renew this important pillar of international stability, and to modernise it," she said.

"We are bringing India from the outside to the inside of the non-proliferation regime for the first time with a pioneering agreement between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W Bush that gives India access to civil nuclear power and gives the International Atomic Energy Agency access to India's civil nuclear facilities," the top US official said.

Washington is also rallying the nations of the world behind a UN Security Council resolution that requires all countries to criminalise proliferation activities, she added.

"Along with Russia, we have launched a global initiative to combat nuclear terrorism," Rice said.

"Another tool is the Proliferation Security Initiative, a voluntary partnership among nations to prevent the spread by air, by sea and by land of weapons of mass destruction and related materials," she said pointing out that the PSI has scored some major counter-proliferation victories as in the case of Libya.

The Secretary of State maintained that the greatest challenge to the non-proliferation regime comes from countries that violate their responsibilities under the non-proliferation treaty with North Korea and Iran being key examples.

"The Iranian regime is watching how the world responds to North Korea's behaviour and it can now see that the international community will confront this threat. Iran can see that the path North Korea is choosing is not leading to more prestige and more prosperity or more security. It's leading to just the opposite," Rice pointed out.

She asserted that both she and President Bush have said before that the United States has no intention of attacking or invading North Korea.

"So the entire world should understand that North Korea's claims that our policies are hostile are simply excuses for the government's refusal to make constructive choices and to stick with them," Rice said going on to list the policy over and beyond the strengthening the vitality of the non-proliferation regime.