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No N-weapon deployment if India doesn't, says Pak

Pakistan promises not to deploy nuclear weapons, if India makes a similar promise, Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz said today.

''We are willing not to deploy nuclear weapons, if India would do the same,'' Aziz said in an interview carried by the state-run news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan.

During the last round of bilateral talks, Aziz said Pakistan offered India a ''framework'' to prevent the deployment of nuclear weapons.

''We proposed to India in the recent talks last month a framework that we call strategic restraint, and we hope India will respond to that,'' he was quoted as saying. However, he didn't elaborate on the framework.

Aziz detailed Pakistan's nuclear position to the APP in advance of a visit next month to the United States by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief, who is to meet US President Bill Clinton.

Clinton's decision to waive some sanctions as well as a promise by the US president to help Pakistan get a badly needed bailout package from international lenders, has eased tensions between Pakistan and the United States, said Aziz.

But Aziz warned that there is still a way to go before Pakistan and the US reach an agreement.

''I think one should not pin too high hopes (on the US visit) because the issues are rather complex and it is apart of the continuing dialogue,'' he said.

It's likely Pakistan will sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty following the withdrawal of some sanctions.

However, a ban on fissile material and the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, both of which Washington would like to see Pakistan and India sign, are more difficult, he said.

Pakistan wants parity with India on the quantity of fissile material and will not sign the NPT unless India also signs.

But Aziz said there may be progress on Washington's worries about the export of nuclear technology.

''There we have no difference in principle, we have no intention of exporting,'' he said.

However, regulations and perhaps even laws to restrict any possible transfer of technology will be required.

UNI

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