In a speech to an Asia-Pacific conference of regional defence ministers and military chiefs in Singapore, Rumsfeld raised the nuclear issue in reiterating US concerns over North Korea's atomic program,

"Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions threaten the security and stability of the region, and indeed the world," he said.

But he bristled at a question following his speech when asked if the United States was hypocritical in developing nuclear weapons when at the same time it insists that others refrain from doing so.

The question specifically referred to US plans to study the feasibility of developing smaller nuclear weapons that can penetrate deep under ground, known as "bunker busters".

"With respect to hypocrisy, I find the discussion amusing if it didn't worry so many people," Rumsfeld said.

"People are now manufacturing, developing, testing, storing, deploying military capabilities underground in ways that are very difficult for anyone to access."

Rumsfeld said penetrating these underground areas using conventional arms "doesn't work", which left the United States, under current arrangements, with only the "very unattractive option" of using very large nuclear weapons.

He said a study had been proposed "to see it if it's feasible to take some of the vastly more powerful nuclear weapons and rearrange them into considerably less powerful nuclear weapons".

"It has nothing to with developing more, quote, useable nuclear weapons, or making the world safe for nuclear weapons," he said.

"It has to do with addressing a real growing problem about underground capabilities that may or may not sometime need to be addressed."

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