"The nature of the dangers which nuclear weapons pose has dramatically intensified with the growing risk that such weapons may be acquired by terrorists..." Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's special envoy Shyam Saran said.

"The mounting concern over the likelihood that in a situation of chaos, Pakistan's nuclear assets may fall into the hands of jihadi elements... underscores how real this danger has become," Saran was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India at a lecture in New Delhi.

"India has to be deeply concerned about the danger it faces" from this "new and growing threat," said Saran, who was India's top diplomat until 2006.

The United States and other Western countries have expressed mounting concern over the security of Islamabad's estimated 50 warheads, with Pakistani forces battling a growing insurgency by Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Pakistan said last month that it had tightened security around all its nuclear facilities.

The south Asian rivals have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 and conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in 1998.

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