India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday criticised the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as not being up to the “formidable” task of protecting the world from nuclear terrorism just days after Barack Obama appealed to world leaders to support the Treaty.

Mr Singh said the NPT’s “deficiencies” had made the world a more dangerous place and called for the replacement of the NPT with a Nuclear Weapons Convention that would agree steps towards the elimination of nuclear weapons.