On Korea talks eve, Pak confirms N-exports

He, however, mentioned that he had asked her to move toward a free-trade agreement with Pakistan. That is likely to meet some resistance in the US Congress, which derailed efforts by the Bush administration after the September 11 attacks to aid Pakistan by lifting restrictions on textile imports.

Of Khan, Musharraf said that after two years of interrogations—which the Pakistanis insisted on doing themselves, rather than allowing them to the US — there was still no evidence about whether the expert also gave North Korea a Chinese-origin nuclear weapon design.

Musharraf’s comments about the interrogations of the expert, A Q Khan, a national hero who is under a loose form of house arrest in Islamabad, are significant because they tend to confirm the accusations American intelligence officials made against North Korea in 2002.

A dozen centrifuges would not be enough to produce a significant amount of bomb-grade uranium. But the US says they would have enabled North Korea to copy the design and build their own.

Musharraf said that in questioning Khan a critical question had not been resolved: Did the scientist give the same bomb design to North Korea and Iran that investigators found in Libya, when it dismantled its uranium programme. ‘Whether he passed these bomb designs to others,” he said, “there is no such evidence.’’

On Pakistan’s tentative diplomatic openings toward Israel, the General said they could flourish ‘‘in case there is forward movement’’ on negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. But, he said, ‘‘this is by no means recognition of Israel’’.

On Osama bin Laden, Musharraf said it was possible he was still moving between Pakistan and Afghanistan four years after the September 11 attacks. ‘‘I will not negate entirely, with confidence, that he is not there,’’ he said. ‘‘But I will never accept anybody who says with confidence that he is there.’’ He said he often asks, ‘‘Do you have intelligence, have you heard him?’’ —NYT