Islamabad, Washington's key ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, is believed to have about 50 nuclear-armed weapons or warheads, an arsenal it began assembling after successfully carrying out its first nuclear tests in May 1998.

There is no evidence that any of the weapons, said to be spread out in various locations around the country, currently are at risk.

But the volatile political climate following a move last week by President Pervez Musharraf to call a state of emergency has led anxious US officials to be more vigilant.

"I have learned that we don't have as a strong handle on it as I thought we do," said US Democratic Representative Ellen Tauscher, after being briefed in Congress this week on the state of the Pakistan nuclear program.

"We need a lot more visibility on what's going on in Pakistan," the Democratic lawmaker said.

"They have nuclear weapons and it is such a volatile part of the world."

Musharraf on Thursday sought to ease allies' worries, announcing he will hold elections by February 15 and also pledging to give up his military uniform before beginning his second term as president.

Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, made the announcement to stem the barrage of international and domestic condemnation about his decision to declare a state of emergency and suspend a planned parliamentary vote.

David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said in remarks made to the Los Angeles Times that the threat is real, especially if rogue scientists take advantage of the recent political turmoil to try to reap personal profit by selling nuclear secrets.

"If there is (further) instability, Musharraf is going to have less ability to exercise tight control. Pakistan tends to leak," he said.

"It has leaked vital nuclear weapons information. It's the nature of the system," Albright said.

Pakistan, the world's only known nuclear-armed Muslim country, is suspected of selling atomic secrets on a global black market headed by its disgraced chief nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Khan confessed in 2004 to passing atomic secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. He was pardoned by Musharraf but remains under virtual house arrest in Islamabad.

An even more worrisome scenario, although officials conceded somewhat less likely, would be if Al-Qaeda or another Islamic extremist network were to launch an attack on one of Pakistan's nuclear sites.

Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto said in an interview Wednesday with the German daily Bild that she too was worried about what would happen if extremists managed to win hold of the country's nuclear arsenal.

US officials told the LA Times that the Central Intelligence Agency and other US spy agencies have ramped up their surveillance of Pakistan's nuclear installations, in hopes of preventing such a doomsday scenario.

Lieutenant General Carter Ham, Director of Operations with the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday that the US military would keep close watch on the weapons.

"We will watch that very closely," he told reporters, saying that the situation was inherently perilous.

"Any time there is a regime that has nuclear weapons and that experiences a situation like in Pakistan, of course there is a primary concern."

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