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Cheney warns against terror nukes

US Vice President Dick Cheney voiced fears yesterday that North Korea will provide nuclear technology to terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, and warned of a nuclear arms race in Asia if it is not stopped.

"Time is not necessarily on our side," he told students at Fudan University in Shanghai, referring to the Stalinist state's nuclear weapons capabilities.

"We worry given what they've done in the past, and given current capabilities, that North Korea could very well provide this technology to someone else, or terror groups.

"We know that there are terror groups like al-Qaeda that have tried to acquire nuclear weapons before."

Few analysts however seem to believe the idea of North Korea as a major potential proliferator of weapons of mass destruction.

Pyongyang's diplomats are more likely to use this option for blackmail, threatening to equip terrorists if the US pushes them too hard, they say.

Cheney, stepping up the pressure ahead of a third round of six-party talks expected before June, described North Korea as "one of the most serious problems in the region today."

Two rounds of six-party talks hosted by China -- and also including the two Koreas, US, Russia and Japan -- to defuse the crisis have so far failed to narrow differences over a US demand for the complete dismantling of Pyongyang's nuclear programs.

The US claims North Korea is pursuing uranium-enriched nuclear weapons and says it has an intelligence assessment that Pyongyang has produced one or two plutonium-based nuclear weapons.

Cheney reaffirmed Washington's stance yesterday.

"We are confident that they have a program to enrich uranium," he said, and praised China, the North's closest ally, for taking the lead role in trying to find a solution.

"President [George W.] Bush and the American people are also greatly encouraged by the Chinese government's decision to take a lead role in matters of the international community and persuade North Korea to completely, verifiably and irreversibly dismantle its nuclear program."

Pyongyang's rulers deny they have a uranium-based program, although US reports suggested this week North Korea's bomb-makers might have been much more successful than previously feared.
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