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US promises to work for peace in South Asia

President Clinton today said the rival nuclear tests by India and Pakistan was "self-defeating, wasteful and dangerous'' and promised to work with them for peace in the region, and with the world community to force an end to the arms race there.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the nuclear tests were an immediate threat to international peace and security.

She said there ought to be no further tests of nuclear devices or missiles to launch them, no military provocation in South Asia and no more "inflammatory rhetoric'' from the two capitals.

Clinton and Albright conferred before she flew to Geneva for a conference with the foreign ministers of the five major nuclear powers, who also are the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Clinton said the United States would work in that forum and others to press India and Pakistan to stop their nuclear weapons programme.

In turn, he and the secretary of state urged the Senate to quickly approve the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. "If we're calling on other nations to act responsibly, America must set the example,'' he said.

China, he said, would play a vital role for peace in the region.

Clinton, heading for a summit in Beijing later this month, said the arms crisis in South Asia shows the importance of his embattled policy of US engagement with Beijing.

"We want very much to work with both India and Pakistan, to help them resolve their differences and to restore a future of hope, not fear,'' he said.

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