Powell phones General

US Secretary of State Collin Powell has telephoned Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and asked him to share details of the probe into prol...

US Secretary of State Collin Powell has telephoned Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and asked him to share details of the probe into proliferation of nuclear technology by its top scientist with the international community.

During his lengthy conversation with Musharraf last night, Powell also told Musharraf that he would be visiting Islamabad later this month to discuss a host of issues including, crackdown on remnants of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Musharraf on his part told Powell that granting pardon to father of nuclear bomb A.Q. Khan was an internal matter of Pakistan and promised to take a decision on handing over details of the probe into the nuclear leak to other countries after the investigation is completed.

8216;8216;Powell demanded that Musharraf should let the international community know about the details of the investigations conducted into the matter so that the network which is behind the transfer of technology to other countries could be eliminated fully,8217;8217; news agency Online quoted officials as saying.

During his telephonic conversation with Musharraf, Powell also discussed about the pardon granted to Khan by the military leader to which the latter reportedly said it was entirely an internal matter and that no Pakistani government in the past nor any institution was involved in the proliferation.

Meanwhile, Pakistan daily Dawn quoted officials as saying that Powell would be arriving in Islamabad later this month on a four-day visit to discuss a host of issues, including, fallout of revelations by Khan and to review the progress so far made in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Some members of the American Association of Nuclear Scientists, who had earlier visited Pakistan after 9/11 and held extensive debriefing sessions with two Pakistani scientists, Bashiruddin Mehmood and Abdul Majeed to find if there was any truth in allegations that they had shared nuclear information with Al Qaeda, may revisit Islamabad. Officials said Pakistan was obliged to give the details of information gathered about nuclear proliferation and the extent of involvement of Khan and his associates in the matter to International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA. The matter, they said, did not end with the pardon granted to Khan by the President.