WASHINGTON, FEB 19The United States has said it is "not easy" to get India and Pakistan togive up the right to conduct nuclear tests when Washington retains it, butsaid it would continue its efforts in the interests of the internationalcommunity."Persuading India and Pakistan to formalise their testing moratoria throughthe Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is a major goal of the internationalcommunity. as it would help in heading off an arms race in South Asia,"senior advisor to President Bill Clinton on nuclear proliferation John Holumtold reporters here on Friday.He, however, said it was "not easy" as the US was yet to ratify the CTBT.President Clinton's efforts in this direction suffered a setback when theAmerican Senate rejected it last year after failing to secure majority votefor its ratification.Ruling out the possibility of the issue being taken up by the Senate thisyear, he said "we hope to make real progress on correcting misconceptionsthat arose during the debate answering legitimate questions and explaininghow the CTBT supports our larger national security strategy."Holum said the CTBT would also strengthen the nuclear non-proliferationtreaty, which permits only the five permanent members of the UN securitycouncil to retain nuclear weapons.He argued the US had everything to gain and nothing to lose by ratifying thetreaty as it could withdraw from the treaty in "supreme national interest"and resume testing.
