Friday, June 2 2006 09:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Although the Indo-US nuclear deal is 'not a perfect' agreement, it has a lot of advantages from safety, security and non-proliferation perspective, Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohammad ElBaradei has said.

"The end result is India coming closer and working with the rest of the world. It is not a perfect agreement, but it has a lot of advantages. From the safety, security and nonproliferation perspective, I see that agreement as a win-win situation," ElBaradei said.

He had made similar remarks after his meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleeezza Rice at the State Department last week.

He said the agreement with India did not endorse its proliferation activities but was indicative of the outside-the-box thinking the international community needs when thinking of the spread of nuclear weapons and materials.

On the nuclear regime in place since the Non-Proliferation Treaty took effect in 1970, he said it is 'broken and needs to be fixed.

"We have a dysfunctional system, a system that cannot endure. We're reaching the fork in the road. Events in the last few years have made it clear that we need to change course" ElBaradei told the Stanford Daily.

With regard to Pakistan and peddling of nuclear wares, including sensitive technology, by its disgraced nuclear scientist A Q Khan, El Baradei said "How much damage was done in the process we don't know."

This demonstrated the need for a 'more robust verification system', he told an audience at the Stanford University in California, adding Pakistan has come closer to the international community in recent years.