The Hindu News Update Service

Washington (PTI): The US should move away from a Musharraf-centric policy and help give voice to the moderate forces in Pakistan or else it would have another state like Iran, but a nuclear armed one, to deal with, according to a top democrat lawmaker and a presidential hopeful.

"History may describe today's Pakistan as a repeat of 1979 Iran or 2001 Afghanistan...or history may write a very different story: that of Pakistan as a stable, democratic, secular Muslim state," the powerful Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Joseph Biden said

"Which future unfolds will be strongly influenced -- if not determined-- by the actions of the US," he said.

Biden warned the current political crisis has much wider implications as it also affected India's thinking in context of the problem in Kashmir and the civilian nuclear deal.

"I think we have to put all these options on the table. I think we should no longer have merely a Musharraf policy," Biden said in a teleconference from Manchester, New Hampshire.

"Imagine what's going on right now in Delhi. If Musharraf and the generals... decide they have to make league by staying out of the way of the Islamists and the Pakistani nationals and the terrorists, now you're sitting there in Delhi and you go... What does that mean in Kashmir? And what does this mean about this nuclear deal we're about to make with the United States of America?

"We're going to refrain from saying we will produce any more nuclear weapons and the neighbour we fear most is over there unstable, they're likely to move?" the Delaware Democrat, who is also seeking the party nomination for the Presidential elections of 2008 said.

The prospect of a failed state in Pakistan is a real possibility although it may not come about tomorrow, Biden said stressing that if Musharraf continues with the present policies that is a recipe for instability.

Biden favoured a more "pro-active" approach to deal with the crisis." We have to move from a Musharraf to a Pakistan policy that gives this moderate majority a chance to succeed... we have to create the conditions in the region that maximize our chances for success and minimize the prospects for failure," the senior Democrat maintained.

Biden said the 1970's Iran scenario could be repeated, only this time with nuclear implications.

"It is hard to imagine a greater nightmare for America than the world's second-largest Muslim nation becoming a failed state in fundamentalists' hands, with an arsenal of nuclear weapons and a population larger than Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and North Korea combined," Biden said.

Biden, who was among law makers who spoke to Musharraf after emergency was imposed last weekend, favoured tripling US non-security aid to Pakistan to 1.5 billion dollars a year, for at least a decade, to help build schools, clinics, and roads.

Biden said security aid should be conditional on Pakistan's performance on cracking down on Al-Qaeda and radical Islamic groups.

"From the American perspective, we spend billions of dollars to bet on Pakistan's government and that they'd fight Al Qaida and the Taliban, while putting the country back on the path of democracy. Well, in fact, they haven't done either, in my view," Biden said.