STOCKHOLM (Agencies) - Disarmament vows have failed to reduce the nuclear threat as nations invest in new weapons systems, a leading think-tank said Tuesday, amid a rise in global tensions due to competition for scarce resources. More than 5,000 nuclear weapons are deployed and ready for use, including nearly 2,000 that are kept in a high state of alert, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) warned in its annual report. The worlds eight nuclear powers Britain, China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia and the US possess more than 20,500 warheads, the think-tank said. The nuclear weapons states are modernising and are investing in their nuclear weapon establishments, so it seems unlikely that there will be any real nuclear weapon disarmament within the foreseeable future, SIPRI Deputy Director Daniel Nord said. Asked what constituted the biggest nuclear threat today, Nord pointed to India and Pakistan, which are expanding their nuclear arsenal. South Asia, Nord said, was the only place in the world where you have a nuclear weapons arms race. The report said Pakistan has almost reached parity with India on nuclear weapons with both the nations having 110 warheads each. Charging that India and Pakistan were expanding their capacity to produce fissile material for military purposes, the report said that while India could have 80-110 nuclear warheads today, up from 60-80 last year, Pakistan may have increased its count from 70-90 to 90-110. Labelling Pakistans nuclear programme as almost the fastest in the world, the SIPRI said that both Islamabad and New Delhi continue to develop new ballistic and cruise missile systems capable of delivering nuclear weapons. They are also expanding their capacities to produce fissile material for military purposes, the report said and claimed that Islamabad was now turning to producing lighter precision warheads for use in restricted spaces. The SIPRI Director said Pakistan may be close to danger of losing control of part of its nuclear arsenal to terrorist and said it was a matter of grave concern. He also voiced worry over the potential consequences if Israel or the United States decide that they will have to intervene and do something about the programme in Iran. While also mentioning the dangerous situation in North Korea, which is believed to have produced enough plutonium to build a small number of nuclear warheads, according to SIPRI, Nord said Iran for now was not on his list of countries posing a significant nuclear threat. The risk is not that Iran will use nuclear weapons, he said, but rather what will be the consequences when the concerned states like Israel or the United States decide that they will have to intervene and do something about the programme in Iran. All five big nuclear weapons states, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, were already deploying new nuclear weapon systems or had announced they would soon do so, he pointed out. As of January 2011, Russia had 11,000 nuclear warheads, including 2,427 deployed, while the United States had 8,500 including 2,150 deployed, the report said. Both countries have signed a Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) that went into effect in February and calls for a maximum of 1,550 warheads deployed per country. SIPRIs annual report also said growing competition for scarce or valuable natural resources is causing or fuelling numerous conflicts around the world. Neil Melvin, the head of SIPRIs Armed Conflict and Conflict Management Programme, said it is difficult to pinpoint direct conflicts between countries over resources, but there is certainly growing tensions... contributing to conflicts breaking out... and especially driving existing conflicts. We have seen examples of how this can be linked to violence with the Arab Spring, in which the onset of violence in Tunisia, and to some degree also in Egypt, was sparked by food rioting and individuals responding to high food prices, he said.