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Pak keeping its nuclear options open

Pakistan will not rush into a nuclear test to match India, but it is keeping its nuclear options open, its Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed said today.

''There is no question of any renunciation of our option,'' Ahmed said. ''We cannot ignore the aspirations of our people to meet the nuclear challenge imposed by India.''

His comments came a day after US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott got an assurance from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief that a ''final or irrevocable'' decision has not yet been taken to test.

Ahmed said Pakistan is watching the industrialised world to see its reaction to India's testing, before deciding whether to explode a nuclear device of its own.

He dismissed the sanctions being imposed on India as ''irrelevant'', and said Sharief has sent a letter to the world leaders attending the G-8 summit in Britain.

In that letter, Sharief warns that "Indian action has raised the possibility of aggressive military acts against Pakistan.''

He also chastises the industrialised world for ignoring signals and warnings from Pakistan that India was preparing to cross the nuclear threshold and induct nuclear weapons into its arsenals.

''We are disappointed that our warnings were not heeded,'' Sharief said in his letter. "We are once again being asked to exercise restraint at an extremely critical juncture on matters involving national security and survival.''

While Ahmed was vague on what further action Pakistan expected from the G-8 summit leaders, he urged the international community to move toward resolution of the outstanding issue of Kashmir.

He warned that the dispute could spiral out of control into another war between the two hostile neighbours.

Ahmed said the government expects India to try to occupy Pakistan's half of Kashmir ''and if they do, it will represent an escalation beyond the threshold of our tolerance.''

Ahmed said Pakistan will not act in ''madness'' like India, and that its response will be ''measured... We are not talking of anything in terms of hours, days, months or weeks . . . We are monitoring the situation... One of the factors to be kept in mind is how the world community responds,'' he said.

Confirming the foreign secretary's statement, US State Department spokesman James P Rubin said Pakistan has not given any assurance, one way or the other, about its nuclear testing plan.

He gave this information in Washington yesterday after speaking to Talbott who was in Islamabad at the head of a high-power US delegation to dissuade Pakistan from going ahead with its plan to test a nuclear device.

He, however, said, ''We believe that testing is a live possibility. We're very aware of the political pressures that exist in Pakistan, but we hope that as a result of this mission, that the government there analyses the situation and concludes that not going forward with the testing programme will redound to its advantage and testing will not.''

Rubin said the delegation had completed a full set of meetings, spending an hour with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief. They also met the chief of staff of the army, General Jehangir Karamat, Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan and other officials from the foreign ministry. They were able to consult with the leaders.

Talbott, who was accompanied by marine corps General Anthony C Zinni and Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs Karl F Inderfurth, will report to President Bill Clinton in Birmingham, where he is attending the summit of the Group of 8 industrial nations.

In Islamabad, Sharief Had said on Friday that his government was in ''no haste'' to respond to India's testing of nuclear weapons with a test of its own.

This statement came as senior American officials ended a day of meetings with Pakistan to try and persuade it not to test a nuclear device of its own and risk launching the Asian subcontinent into a nuclear arms race.

''We are reviewing the situation in detail . . . We are in no haste to test the bomb immediately after India has tested its bomb as we are a responsible nation,'' Sharief said.

''Pakistan has a very, very tough choice here,'' American officials said in a late evening briefing on Friday, on condition they not be identified by name.

''We were reassured authoritatively that Pakistan has not made a full or irrevocable decision on this question,'' they said.

The assurances were made even after Sharief was told of the Indian prime minister's statement that New Delhi had the capacity for a ''big bomb''.

''It is particularly important that good friends like the US and Pakistan stay in the closest possible touch... understand each other's point of view at a difficult time... (and) this is a difficult time,'' Talbott said following his meeting with the foreign minister.

The US and other industrialised nations have urged Pakistan not to test a nuclear device, but domestic pressure has mounted for Pakistan to respond in kind since India's first round of test explosions on Monday.

There were earlier reports that Talbott would bring incentives from Washington to try to woo Pakistan away from what seems inevitable -- its own test of a nuclear device.

However, American officials said Pakistan did not come to the table with a ''wish list'' in exchange for a promise not to test.

Rather, officials said, the Pakistani concern was more that sanctions against India be tough and long lasting.

''They fear it will be a temporary uproar and back to business as usual,'' they said. But they assured Pakistan the sanctions would be tough, ''not as tough as with Iraq, but very serious sanctions.''

There were no promises to Pakistan that the US sanctions it has been under since 1990, when the US cut off $ 650 million in military and humanitarian aid, would be lifted, the officials said.

UNI

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