Pakistan will test nuclear device: Gohar

BIRMINGHAM/ISLAMABAD, May 17: German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, quoting information they received...

BIRMINGHAM/ISLAMABAD, May 17: German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, quoting information they received, said in Birmingham that Pakistan had carried out a nuclear test. Immediately after Kohl made the statement, a spokesman for Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif denied the report, saying no test had been conducted.

However, Pakistan Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan said in Islamabad today that his country will go ahead with a nuclear test although the timing of the explosion is yet to be decided. And in Lahore, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the country needs a maximum of 26 hours notice to test. 8220;We can prove our nuclear worth within 12 to 26 hours. All options are open and we have not given up any option to anyone in this regard,8221; he said.

Kohl dropped the bombshell at a press conference at the end of the G-8 summit. 8220;We are in possession of reliable information within the last two hours according to which Pakistan has also gone ahead with a nuclear test,8221;he said. Hashimoto told his briefing that 8220;We have unconfirmed information that Pakistan conducted a nuclear test.8221; 8220;If it is true, we could never forgive Pakistan8217;s action,8221; he added.

Later, US President Bill Clinton said that Pakistan had not carried out a nuclear test according to information he has received. 8220;Based on our best information, it hasn8217;t happened yet,8221; he told reporters after the summit.Strobe Talbott, the US deputy Secretary of State who just returned from Pakistan, told journalists in Birmingham that at the time he left Islamabad, the Pakistan government 8220;had not taken a decision8221;. 8220;Not taking a decision8221; he said, 8220;did not mean that any options were ruled out.8221;

Talbott said that he had no information about whether Pakistan had conducted a test. He said that the people he had met, including Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif and Chief of the Army Staff Jehangir Karamat were 8220;wrestling with a perplexing dilemma8221;.

Talbott said that while the Pakistan government had said that itwould take full account of Clinton8217;s message to them, its decision would be based on its estimation of its national interest. He said that the Pakistan government 8220;gave us a fair hearing8230;but have the sovereign right to decide for themselves.8221; He said: 8220;They made it clear that they did not think there were any magic wands to wave here 8230; nothing the US or international community could do which could solve the problem India has created for them.8221;