Washington:
A top US military officer on Sunday expressed confidence over the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
"With respect to the nuclear weapons and sites that are controlled by Pakistan, as President Obama mentioned the other day, we have confidence in their security procedures and elements and believe that the security of those sites is adequate," General David Petraeus told the Fox News in an interview.
Petraeus is the Commander of the US Central Command, which among others have Afghanistan and Pakistan under its jurisdiction. Recently Petraeus was reported as saying in the US media that the next two weeks are very crucial for the future of Pakistan.
"The reports of what I said were a little bit more than what I actually said behind closed doors several weeks ago, at which time I said that, in fact, the next few weeks would be very important and, to a degree, pivotal in the future for Pakistan," he said.
"I think that that has been proven accurate. Now the Pakistani government, military, people have all responded, and certainly the next few weeks will be very important in this effort to roll back, if you will, this existential threat, a true threat to Pakistan's very existence that has been posed by the Pakistani Taliban," Petraeus said.
Expressing satisfaction over ongoing military action against the Taliban militants in the Swat Valley, Petraeus said: "There is a degree of unanimity (in Pakistan) that there must be swift and effective action taken against the Taliban in Pakistan."
This is reflected also, as has been announced by the Pakistani leaders, the shift of forces from the eastern part of their country faced off against India to the North-West Frontier Province areas where the fighting is already ongoing and where more presumably will be conducted, he said.
"This is a Pakistani fight, a Pakistani battle, with elements that, as we've mentioned, threaten the very existence of the Pakistani state," Petraeus said.
Responding to a question on Al Qaeda, General Petraeus said its leaders are based in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan. He believed that Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri are still in charge of Al-Qaeda.
"I don't think anyone can give you any kind of accurate location for bin Laden or, frankly, for Zawahiri other than a general description of where that might be, but certainly, they surface periodically," he said.
"We see communications that they send out. Of course, they periodically send out videos in which they try to exhort people and to inspire individuals to carry out extremist activities," Petraeus added.