Bump in ties between 8216;best friends8217; Pak,China?

Gilani has previously said that the two friends 8220;are like one nation and two countries8221;.

8220;We have asked our Chinese brothers to please build a naval base at Gwadar,8221; Ahmad Mukhtar,told journalists,last week.

This week,however,China8217;s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman,Jiang Yu,said there was no such deal.

8220;Regarding the specific China-Pakistan cooperative project that you raised,I have not heard of it. It8217;s my understanding that during the visit last week this issue was not touched upon,8221; she said.

The Times spoke to experts who tried to explain the discrepancy.

8220;Maybe there were some discussions between the two sides when Gilani was up in China last week,bearing on some kind of future Chinese stewardship of the port,8221; said Michael Kugelman,a South Asia scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre in Washington.

8220;Maybe there was some speculative discussion. Perhaps the Defence Ministry simply got its signals wrong,8221; he said.

Other experts pointed out that Pakistan8217;s announcement may have been an attempt to send a message to Washington that Islamabad had other friends and options.

Relations between Islamabad and Washington have further deteriorated after a raid by US Navy Seals killed terror mastermind Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.