Islamabad, Jul 05, 2006 -- Asia Pulse

 

In a bid to get a civilian nuclear deal from the US, Pakistan has said it was ready to permit foreign companies to invest in atomic power plants in the country and take back the unspent fuel to allay fears over proliferation.

"We are even prepared that they come and invest and take their unspent fuel back. Just give us the energy. There is no case for not giving this [nuclear technology] to Pakistan," said Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri, who is on a visit to the US and France.

In an interview yesterday to state-run PTV before his departure, Kasuri said he would "press" the leaders of the two countries to rethink their stand on their persistent refusal to reach a pact with Pakistan similar to the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.

Kausri, who is now in Paris to hold talks with his French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy, said he would not "hesitate to press" French and American officials on Pakistan's case for civilian nuclear technology.

He said "we are a declared nuclear power. Wherever I go, whether US or Europe, I will press our case."

He claimed that "no harm" would be done to global counter-proliferation efforts if Pakistan gets civilian nuclear technology.

Pakistan's former top scientist A Q Khan is now under house arrest after a global nuclear blackmarketing network led by him was exposed.

After his Paris visit, Kasuri would go to Washington where he is scheduled to hold talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other top US officials.

Pakistan officials said the Washington meetings are the follow-up to the bilateral cooperation agenda chalked up by Islamabad and Washington during President George W Bush's visit to Pakistan in March.

In his interview, Kasuri brushed aside reports that Pak-US ties were going through a "cold spell," specially in the light of assertions by Rice that President Pervez Musharraf should step up efforts in war against Al-Qaeda and Taliban as also hold free and fair elections.

He claimed that senior Bush Administration officials were all praise for Pakistan's counter-terror efforts on the border with Afghanistan. "So if they say they are happy, should we believe them or should we believe a spin story in some newspaper? In modern media, there are various lobbies with an axe to grind. There is no cold spell," he said.

He also played down the impression that Washington's increasingly curt statements on Musharraf's commitment to democracy were a pressure tactic linked to Pakistan's cooperation in fighting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

He said Rice did not "volunteer" her statement in a press conference on June 28 in Islamabad about the need to hold "free and fair" elections next year. "The question is: Did she do it voluntarily? No, she did not volunteer her statement" but only said it in answer to a question from a reporter, Kasuri said.

"I don't know if there is a pressure tactic going on. As a foreign minister of Pakistan, all I can say is that we have never succumbed to pressure. I don't think there is any pressure on us. And if anybody tries that, they will find out, as our record proves, that we have a very independent foreign policy," he said.

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Pakistan ready to permit foreign firms to invest in nuclear plants