Tuesday, July 25 2006 12:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The US today (July 25, 2006) said it 'discourages' Pakistan from using for military purposes the new powerful nuclear reactor it was reportedly building, while acknowledging that it had known about the plans regarding theKhushab plant for some time.

"We have known of these plans for some time. Pakistan is not a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty; nor is India. But on the other hand, we discourage military use of the facility," White House Spokesman Tony Snow told reporters here.

He was responding to a report in The Washington Post that Pakistan was constructing a powerful new reactor for producing plutonium at its Khushab nuclear plant.

Snow said the US supports the fissile material cutoff treaty that has currently been introduced and discourages expansion and modernisation of nuclear programmes of both India and Pakistan.

"We continue to discourage the expansion and modernisation of nuclear weapons programmes, both of India and Pakistan. We also support a fissile material cut-off treaty that we've introduced to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament," he said.

"We're continuing in all the states that produce fissile material to observe a voluntary production moratorium, as we have in the United States for a very long time," he said.

Snow refused to comment on an apprehension among some lawmakers over the F-16s package that its technology including advances avionics, could fall into the hands of China.

"I don't even want to answer it because I don't want to get out of my lane. That one, I'll just have you call the Pentagon. Let them give you a straight answer on it," Snow said.