Pak not to allow foreign inspection of nuke facilities

Pak Prez says that he will not allow foreign inspection of its nuclear facilities and would not stop its nuclear and missile programme.

Pakistan would never allow foreign inspection of its nuclear facilities and "never stop" its nuclear and missile programme, President Pervez Musharraf has said insisting that disgraced scientist AQ Khan acted alone in selling nuclear technology without Government's or military's knowledge.

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"This is a very sensitive issue. Would any other nuclear power allow its sensitive installations to be inspected? Why should Pakistan be expected to allow anybody to inspect," he said when asked whether Islamabad would permit foreign inspectors to monitor its nuclear facilities.

"We are not hiding anything ...What is the need of any inspection," he said in an interview to a British daily.

He also denied that nuclear weapons technology had been exchanged for North Korean ballistic missile, and said Pakistan bought conventional surface-to-air missile from the communist state in 2002 after paying money.

Musharraf told The Financial Times daily that Pakistan has no intention of freezing its nuclear weapons programme.

"We will never stop our nuclear and missile programme... That is our vital national interest. It is totally indigenous now. Whatever had to be imported and procured has been obtained."

He also insisted that Khan together with six other scientists and officials currently in custody, acted alone in selling nuclear technology without the government's or military's knowledge.