ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday said it was ready for any "constructive dialogue" with India for a Fissile Material Treaty (FMT) in the event of such a proposal.

Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said Pakistan had proposed a "strategic restraint regime" (SRR) with India, to which there was no response. She was answering a question on the implications of the India-U.S. civilian nuclear cooperation deal.

"We have already said we proposed to India a strategic restraint regime. We have not had a response to that. Some elements of the SRR have been discussed in the past. We are also willing to participate constructively in the negotiations on a Fissile Material Treaty if and when the negotiations start in the Composite Dialogue process."

Ms. Aslam said Pakistan's criticism of the U.S.-India nuclear deal, days after it was sealed during U.S. President George Bush's visit, was not "an exercise in damage control."

"Even before the deal was signed we said we would like the U.S. to adopt a package approach because Pakistan also has energy requirements. We gave our detailed reaction after learning the details of the agreement. Our concern was heightened by the fact that there were certain provisions in the agreement that could have some implications for strategic stability in this region."

Separately, Pakistan's Ambassador to the U.S., Jehangir Karamat, said his country was "totally committed" to the non-proliferation restraint regime. "We want strategic stabilisation in South Asia, we are supportive of non-proliferation, and we are supportive of any restraint regime that comes into South Asia."

Addressing the annual spring meeting of the Association of Physicians of Pakistani descent in North America (APPNA), Gen. (retd.) Karamat said, "Let me just tell you that we were supportive of a non-aggression pact in the past, we were supportive of a nuclear weapons-free zone in the past, we were supportive of a restraint regime; and today, if the U.S. can facilitate a moratorium on fissile material production or on testing, we are very happy to be part of that."

"We are not interfering, we are merely putting on the table that we also have an energy requirement," he said on the India-U.S. deal.On the A.Q. Khan international network of nuclear proliferation, he said, "We have acknowledged that, we have cooperated and we provided every single piece of information that we could uncover."

"But, I don't think any country should be expected to provide the kind of access which can undermine its strategic security and Pakistan is not about to do that," he said.

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