ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has urged the United States to `devise a package' for both India and Pakistan in civilian nuclear cooperation.

Pakistan English daily, Dawn in a report from Washington, quoted the country's U.S. ambassador Jehangir Karamat as saying that there should be a package for both India and Pakistan.

"Instead of a country-specific deal on a subject as critical as nuclear technology, there should be a package for both India and Pakistan," ambassador Karamat told Washington-based Pakistan journalists.

Meets Boucher

On Friday, the ambassador had a meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher at the State Department where the two officials are believed to have discussed Islamabad's reaction to the India-specific nuclear deal.

The Dawn said the meeting took place hours after the Pakistan Foreign Office cautioned that grant of waiver by the U.S. Congress to the agreement with India on civilian nuclear cooperation would have serious implications for the security environment in South Asia. The Foreign Office also said that Pakistan would not accept any discriminatory treatment.

In his briefing to journalists Gen. (retd.) Karamat defended the Foreign Office's response as "a clarification of what we have been saying all along." He said that in the interest of balance of power in South Asia, there should be a package for both countries and not country-specific deals on a subject, as critical as nuclear technology.

"De-hyphenated policy"

"We do understand and appreciate the underpinnings of the U.S. de-hyphenated policy in South Asia, but this should not be leaning so heavily on one side," he said. Referring to a recent statement by President Pervez Musharraf that Pakistan's security policy was no longer India-specific, Mr. Karamat said that "minimum deterrence" continued to be a pillar of Islamabad's security strategy.

"We hope U.S. policy will take these aspects into consideration. It is also our hope that U.S. policy will not be based on transitory and evolving trends, but rather, on relationships that are maturing in these fluid situations," the ambassador said.

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