US worried over Pak nukes getting into Taliban's hands: Clinton

Worried by the "worst" and "unthinkable" possibility of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of the Taliban, the US is pushing Islamabad hard to devise a strategy to regain control of the country, secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said.

The unchecked advances of Taliban which moved to about 100 km of Islamabad by taking control of Burner district just outside the capital region has stunned the Obama Administration.

Reacting to the Taliban's march towards other Pakistani cities from their stronghold in Swat, Clinton said the US cannot even contemplate that and cannot let this go on any further.

"One of our concerns, which we've raised with the Pakistani government and military is that if the worst, the unthinkable were to happen, and this advancing Taliban encouraged and supported by Al-Qaeda and other extremists were to essentially topple the government for failure to beat them back -- then they would have the keys to the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan," Clinton told Fox News.

"We can't even contemplate that. We cannot, you know, let this go on any further. Which is why we're pushing so hard for the Pakistanis to come together around a strategy to take their country back," Clinton said, three days after she asked the Pakistani leadership of basically abdicating to the advancing Taliban.

However, Clinton said the US has been assured by the Pakistani authorities and the military that their nuclear weapons were in "safe" hands.

The security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is "an issue that we have very adamant assurances about from the Pakistani military and government. We've done a lot of work over the years evaluating that," she said.

"I think that the current thinking of our government is that it is safe," she said.

"But that's given the current configuration of power in Pakistan," she said.

Last week, the US led an unprecedented concerted effort to convince Pakistan to change its mindset and "traditional focus" on India as a threat and instead concentrate on Taliban extremists who are posing an "existential threat" to the country.

"We have had a series of meetings with both Pakistanis and the Afghans, going in depth about how to get the Pakistani government to change their focus, from what they viewed as their existential threat, namely, India -- to what we view as their existential threat -- namely, this extremist insurgency," Clinton told a Congressional Committee.

"I think the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and the extremists," she said mincing no words in a strong criticism of Islamabad implicitly blaming the Pakistan government, the Army and the civil society for the Taliban moving closer to Islamabad.