Washington: Crediting the Pakistan Government with breaking up the network run by its scientists that proliferated weapons of mass destruction, the US has said it was working towards permanently destroying the clandestine web.

"Certainly the network that has been broken up by the Government of Pakistan is an important step in stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said yesterday (Feb 18, 2004).

"This is a shadowy network that exists. The investigation continues there is still more that we are learning. But we are acting to break up this network once and for all," he added.

McClellan said US President George W Bush had made it a priority to confront the threat from the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

"The most dangerous threat that we face is from the spread of weapons of mass destruction and the possibility of those weapons getting in the hands of terrorists who seek to do harm to America and our friends and allies.

"And that's why the President is acting decisively to confront this threat and make the world a safer place," McClellan said.

Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan recently confessed that the network run by him supplied nuclear material to Iran, North Korea and Libya, but was pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf.