US steps up surveillance of Pakistan's nuclear arms: report

The US, which spends billions monitoring adversaries like Al-Qaeda, North Korea and Iran, pays an equally intense focus on ally Pakistan and has ramped up surveillance of its nuclear arms, according to a report.

The "US intelligence agencies are also focused on the security of the nuclear programme in India, Pakistan's arch-rival," The Washington Post reported today, citing classified documents, but gave no details on Indian programme.

"The USD 52.6 billion US intelligence arsenal is aimed mainly at unambiguous adversaries, including al-Qaeda, North Korea and Iran. But top-secret budget documents reveal an equally intense focus on one purported ally: Pakistan," the Post reported.

Citing a 178-page summary of the intelligence community's "black budget", it said the US has ramped up its surveillance of Pakistan's nuclear arms, is concerned about biological and chemical arms sites there and tries to evaluate the loyalty of Pakistani counter-terrorism agents recruited by the CIA.

"Pakistan appears at the top of charts listing critical US intelligence gaps. It is named as a target of newly formed analytic cells. And fears about the security of its nuclear programme are so pervasive that a budget section on containing the spread of illicit weapons divides the world into two categories: Pakistan and everybody else," the Post said.

The paper said the classified document was provided to it by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked some of America's most closely guarded secrets.

"The disclosures expose broad new levels of US distrust in an already unsteady security partnership with Pakistan, a politically unstable country that faces rising Islamist militancy," the Post said.

It also reveal a more expansive effort to gather intelligence on Pakistan than US officials have disclosed.

The US has delivered nearly USD 26 billion in aid to Pakistan over the past 12 years in exchange for its cooperation in counterterrorism efforts.

"But with Osama bin Laden dead and al-Qaeda degraded, US spy agencies appear to be shifting their attention to dangers that have emerged beyond the patch of Pakistani territory patrolled by CIA drones," the paper said.

Pakistan is estimated to have as many as 120 nuclear weapons, and the documents indicate that US spy agencies suspect that Islamabad is adding to that stockpile