"Universal adherence to the NPT itself, including by India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea ... remains a fundamental objective of the United States," said Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller.

She later praised "India's willingness to proceed with a fissile material cutoff treaty, in cooperation with the United States, and willingness also to pursue the comprehensive test ban treaty, as well as other lesser but important measures, such as improving its export controls."

"India is coming closer to the non-proliferation regime and that too is an important goal of US policy," Gottemoeller added.

The envoy was at the United Nations for a preparatory session for an NPT conference scheduled for May 2010 in New York.

The last such conference, which gathers NPT signatory states and seeks to rescue the treaty from charges it has become obsolete, ended in disarray in May 2005 with no agreement from the participating countries.

The conferences have been held every five years since the NPT was ratified in 1970. There are currently 189 signatory countries to the treaty.

Israel, which has never publicly acknowledged having a nuclear program, is not a member. Pakistan and India likewise have failed to sign the treaty, while North Korea had been a member, but pulled out in 2003.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed hope Monday that the week-long preparatory session would produce agreements on key procedural matters and issue concrete recommendations for the conference next year.

earlier related report
Pakistan's nuclear security still cause for concern: US
The security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is still cause for concern in Washington despite reassurances that the weapons are out of reach of Taliban militants, the US national security adviser has said.

General James Jones said in an interview with the BBC that he had been told by Pakistan's army that the country's nuclear stockpile was safe, but that Washington needed further guarantees.

"We have received many assurances from the military that this is something they have under control but this is very much an ongoing topic," he said.

"The world would like to know that on this question, that there's absolute security and transparency."

Jones' comments came as the Pakistani army continued to battle Taliban militants who have occupied areas of the northwestern Malakand region, the fringes of which are only 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Islamabad.

Islamabad's western allies expressed serious concerns when the militants began patrolling the streets of Buner district -- around two hours' drive from the capital -- to enforce their strict brand of Islamic sharia law.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton labelled the Taliban advances an "existential threat" to Pakistan.

The move came after Islamabad signed an agreement effectively ceding control of the Swat valley, part of Malakand and a former tourist spot popular with foreigners, to the Taliban in a bid to end a brutal two-year insurgency.

Speaking in Washington, where Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is due to meet US President Barack Obama this week, Jones said "things are moving in a more positive direction" in Pakistan, but said more guarantees were needed.

"If Pakistan doesn't continue in the direction that it presently is and we're not successful there then, obviously, the nuclear question comes into view," he said.

The notion that the country's nuclear weapons could fall into Taliban hands was "the very, very worst case scenario," said Jones.

"We're going to do anything we can within the construct of our bilateral relations and multilateral relations to make sure that doesn't happen."

Obama will raise concerns about nuclear proliferation and resurgent extremism in talks this week with Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the White House said Monday.

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