Pak tests one more N-device

"All the tests were fully contained and there was no release of radio activity. The devices tested correspond to weapons configuration compatible with the delivery system. Today we have proved the credibility of our defence," said Pakistani Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed.

Earlier, both state-run Pakistan radio and Pakistan television had announced that two devices had been exploded, but Ahmed later clarified that it was, in fact, just one.

There also was confusion about the number of devices exploded on Thursday, with initial reports saying two devices had been exploded, laterreports saying three and finally in an address to the nation, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said five devices had been exploded.

Ahmed’s brief statement was laced with conciliatory offers of negotiations. He said Pakistan wants to open talks with India to settle the outstanding issue of Kashmir. He said the time has come for the two neighbours to sit at the negotiation table and "talk peace." This comes a day after the Pak proposal that both countries sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and India suggesting a mutual pledge not to strike first.

While he didn’t announce a moratorium on testing, Ahmed said that Pakistan "has completed its current series of tests."

The news of Pakistan’s sixth test was greeted with another round of celebrations in the country although observers say they were not as boisterous as Thursday’s celebrations. The mood was summed up by 56-year-old Muhammad Ramzan, who works as a guard: "India has done five. We have done six. We are more powerful."

While the Karachi StockExchange was closed on Saturday, the news caused concern in the money market. Foreign exchange dealers, whose licences were restored on Friday evening, said that after the news reached the market, the kerb rate of the Pakistan Rupee went into a tailspin. The Pakistan Rupee, which has opened in the kerb market at Rs 46.5 to the Dollar, declined to Rs 47.50 by mid day.

"The people are waiting for the Dollar to fall further," said Ovais Kalia, of Khanani and Kalia International, Pakistan’s largest money changer company. But when the news of the sixth blast came to the market, the Pakistani Rupee fell to 49.50 against the dollar.

Banks, which work half day on Saturday, also had a busy time when hundreds of customers arrived and converted their Dollar savings and withdrew their money from the banks. "There is a crisis of confidence in the banks caused by Friday’s decision to freeze foreign currency accounts," said one banker. Hundreds also operated their lockers on Saturday and took out their valuablepossessions on rumours that the government would seal the lockers in banks as a next step.

While Finance Minister Sartaj Aziz denied that the government had any such plan, many people went ahead anyway. "I don’t want to take that chance," said one customer.

A report from Lahore says that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif got a hero’s welcome today when he returned home. "I have smashed the begging bowl," he told reporters who met him at the airport. "From today we have begun a policy of self-reliance and independence."

Reiterating his offer for talks with India’s Prime minister A. B. Vajpayee, Sharif said that there would be no more tests "unnecessarily." He urged the United Nations to move quickly to try to reach a settlement on Kashmir. Without a peaceful settlement, Sharif said, there can be no end to the arms race on the South Asian subcontinent. Meanwhile, in an exclusive interview published in the English language daily, The News, Pakistan’s top nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, hassaid that Pakistan had tested fission devices but could also explode a thermonuclear device if the government decided to do so. "If the security of the country demands and the Prime Minister asks, we can very easily mount it on planes and missiles, not in months or weeks but within days," he told a television channel.

He said that the first series of tests were "all boosted fission devices using Uranium 235." Khan said these have been manufactured at his labs in Kahuta for the past twenty years. He said India used the old technology of plutonium from spent fuel whereas Pakistan used enriched uranium which is a much more sophisticated and safer process.

Agencies add: The United States condemned Pakistan for its latest nuclear test, saying it was disappointed that Islamabad ignored international calls to exercise restraint.

Later in the day, Clinton is expected to sign documents formally imposing sanctions on Pakistan for exploding the first round of nuclear devices on Thursday.

Meanwhile, areport in The Washington Times said that Pakistan may have nuclear warheads for the M-11 missiles it bought from China several years ago and will soon carry out a second test launch of its Ghauri missile.