Washington: The United States refused to comment on reports that Pakistan had supplied equipment to North Korea that could have helped the reclusive Stalinist state develop its nuclear weapons programme.

"I'm not in a position to comment one way or the other," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, following regular protocol of US officials who decline to comment on intelligence matters. Other senior US officials followed suit throughout the day.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf dismissed the reports in 'The New York Times' as "baseless".

"There is no such thing, this is absolutely baseless," Musharraf told a news conference in Islamabad.

"There is no such thing as collaboration with North Korea in the nuclear arena," he said a day after the shock revelation that the communist regime had secretly been developing nuclear weapons in violation of a 1994 agreement with the United States.