Washington: Contending that Chinese companies continue to provide assistance to Pakistan in its nuclear and missile programme, a senior US Naval official has said Islamabad "has recently developed the capability to produce plutonium for potential weapons use".

This was stated by Vice Admiral Lowell E Jacoby, US Navy director, Defence Intelligence Agency, before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

"Chinese companies remain involved with nuclear and missile programmes in Pakistan and Iran," he said.

The "most disturbing" example of the trend towards "secondary proliferation", that is, proliferation by countries that previously imported weapons or weapons technology and begin indigenous production and export of those systems, is the linkage of North Korean, Libyan and Iranian enrichment programmes to Pakistani technology.

India and Pakistan, said Admiral Jacoby, "have well developed nuclear infrastructures and small stockpiles of (nuclear) weapons. Weapons stockpiles in India and Pakistan are expected to grow."

Admiral Jacoby included the Western provinces in Pakistan, along with portions of Southern Philippines, Indonesian Islands, Chechnya, rural areas in Myanmar, several areas in Africa and areas in South America, among the "ungoverned spaces", which include densely populated cities where terrorists can congregate and prepare for operations with relative impunity.