The American Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, has praised Argentina and Brazil for the restraint she said they'd shown over nuclear power.

Mrs Albright was speaking in Washington before leaving for a meeting in Geneva of the five traditional nuclear powers -- the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China --.

The five are to discuss a new non-proliferation treaty following the nuclear tests carried out by India and then Pakistan last month.

Mrs Albright said that not only had the two South American countries renounced the idea of developing their own nuclear capacities, but they'd also agreed to share scientific information and adopted measures to improve mutual trust in nuclear matters.