Notwithstanding Washington's refusal, Pakistan has sought extension of the Indo-US nuclear deal to it saying this could help control the production of fissile material in South Asia and lower tension with India.
"The whole initiative of US-India civilian nuclear deal can be enveloped in nuclear restraint regime, which allows production of fissile material for all of South Asia, including India and Pakistan," Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told CNN in an interview.
"We believe that a nuclear restraint regime around the whole issue will help control production of fissile material in South Asia and lead to lowering of tension and peace," Aziz, who is currently in New York to co-chair the reforms panel of United Nations, said.
Pakistan, in the past, had proposed a nuclear restraint regime to India, which did not show much interest, saying that its nuclear programme was not Pakistan-centric.
Aziz said a deal on the lines of one reached between India and United States was also important for Pakistan, as its economy is growing at six to eight percent a year a year and its 'energy needs are very acute'.
Pakistan believes that if it can have more avenues of peaceful production of nuclear energy under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards and guidelines to meet its growing electricity needs that would be good for the country and the region, he said.
To a question about US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's statement that Washington had no plans to extend the nuclear deal to Pakistan, Aziz said, "I have said that Pakistan's energy needs are similar and we would like this opportunity to be used to come up with nuclear restraint environment."
