NEW YORK, March 11: Ruling out the possibility of an extremist government coming into power in Pakistan any time soon, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official said on Sunday: "If something happened to (General) Pervez Musharraf tomorrow, another general would step in."

"I am not particularly worried about an extremist government coming to power and getting hold of nuclear weapons," Robert Richer, who was associate director of operations in 2004 and 2005 for the CIA, told the New

York Times in an interview.

According to the newspaper, the American officials say that Pakistan's ISI continues to play a direct role in arming and financing the Taliban's re-emergence in western Pakistan, and there are worries about the relationships between some senior military leaders and Islamist groups.

Reflecting upon Bush administration's recent frustration with General Musharraf and its belief that he (Musharraf) is all that stands between Washington and a group of nuclear-armed mullahs, Mr Richer played down the concerns, indicating that succession plan has the seal of approval from the agency.

The ties between Islamic militants and Pakistan's security services are decades old, with the two sides working together most closely during the Mujahideen battles against the Soviet Army in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Analysts generally agree, however, that the military remains a largely secular institution that takes seriously its role as protector of Pakistan's identity and would not allow Islamists to become the dominant force in Pakistan.

While many in Washington agree that the threat of Islamic militants has become something of a useful foil for Gen Musharraf, there is a rift about just how the White House should be treating the Pakistani president.

The newspaper said that some counter-terrorism officials at the Pentagon argue that to the extent that Gen. Musharraf's government feels real pressure, it is from those within the Pakistani military who worry most about alienating Washington and jeopardising the flow of military aid to Pakistan.

The money and military hardware from the United States is crucial for Pakistan's armed forces to keep pace with arch-rival India. Because of this dependence, some officials argue, the Bush administration has powerful leverage to force Gen. Musharraf to crack down on extremism, the New York Times said.

On the other side of the debate, the newspaper notes "some State Department officials say that while Islamic militants probably would not topple Mr Musharraf, why roll the dice?"

“Mr Musharraf might be frustrating to work with, they say, but he has the virtue of being a known quantity. And with Iraq spiralling out of control and an emboldened Iran flexing its muscle throughout the region, aren't things complicated enough without taking a chance on a nuclear-armed Muslim nation of 165 million people? "

"How many degrees of difficulty do you want to add?" asks one Bush administration official. "This is one equation that we don't want to touch."

The question of how to handle Gen. Musharraf is critical at a time when intelligence officials widely agree that the Taliban are expanding its reach in Pakistan, gradually spreading from remote areas into more settled regions of the country.

“The fear within Washington that Islamic extremism has become a dominant force in Pakistan has been stoked in part by Mr Musharraf himself. Some analysts say his warnings are used to maintain a steady flow of American aid and keep at bay demands from Washington for democratic reforms.”