Washington: 35 to 40 countries are believed to be capable of manufacturing nuclear weapons and this reinforces the need to update the Nuclear non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said.

The treaty, which came into force in 1970, sought to sanctify the possession of nuclear weapons by the US, Britain, France, Russia and China and keep out newcomers. Since then, three more countries like India, Pakistan and Israel have become de facto nuclear weapon powers. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) says that North Korea may already possess two or three weapons.

India has repeatedly said that the only way to solve the nuclear weapon issue is to abolish it but the five members of the Security Council have refused to give it up.

ElBaradei told French daily 'Le Monde' that the NPT has been overtaken by a world in which developing nuclear arms has become attractive not only to many countries, but also to terrorist groups.

The number of countries believed to be able to create such weapons "is estimated at 35 or 40," he said.

"And under the current regime, there is nothing illicit for a non-nuclear state to conduct uranium- enriching activities or even to possess military-grade nuclear material," he said.

PTI