The US has reassured Pakistan that Washington has no plan to seize the country's nuclear weapons, saying it has confidence in Islamabad's ability to protect its own nuclear arsenal.

"The US has no intention of seizing Pakistani nuclear weapons or material," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters at his daily news briefing, when questioned about an article in American magazine the New Yorker that the Obama administration wants Pakistan to let Washington help secure its weapons in a crisis.

According to the article, written by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, the US administration has been working on 'highly sensitive understandings' with the Pakistani military that would let the US special units secure further 'the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis'.

The magazine said that the consultations had been kept secret because of growing hostility towards the United States in Pakistan, where many people believe Washington wants to confiscate Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

Earlier, the Pakistani military's Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee chairman, General Tariq Majid, rejected the report as 'absurd and plain mischievous'.

"There is absolutely no question of sharing or allowing any foreign individual, entity or a state, any access to sensitive information about our nuclear assets," Majid said in a statement issued late on Monday.

US ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson also rejected the New Yorker report.

MVZ/SC/AKM