US wants India to sign NPT along with Pak, Israel, N Korea

US wants India along with Pakistan, Israel and North Korea to join the Nuclear Non-Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), a top Obama administration official has said.

"Universal adherence to the NPT itself - including by India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea - remains a fundamental objective of the US," Rose Gottemoeller, Assistant Secretary of State said in her opening remarks at the Third Session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2010 NPT Review Conference being held at the UN headquarters in New York.

India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea are not signatories to the NPT, which so far has been signed by as many as 189 countries. However, later she praised India's willingness to proceed with a fissile material cut-off treaty in cooperation with the United States and its willingness to pursue the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) as well as other lesser, but important measures such as improving its export control.

Talking to reporters after her participation in the meeting, Gottemoeller said the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, along with several other steps taken by New Delhi in the recent past, has brought India closer to the NPT.

"So I would say that India is coming closer to the non-proliferation regime, and that too is an important goal of the US foreign policy," she said.