Islamabad (PTI): Pakistan's disgraced atomic scientist A Q Khan, under house arrest for the past four years after admitting to proliferating nuclear technology, has said that he is under "illegal detention" and hopes that the new government will soon lift restrictions on his movement.

"My health is deteriorating and the claims of the government about my physical well-being do not carry weight," 72-year-old Khan said in probably his first interview since his detention in February 2004 with the Urdu newspaper Nawa-i-Waqt.

The main cause of his poor health is his "solitary confinement", claimed Khan, who was hospitalised briefly last month and has undergone several medical check-ups in the past few weeks.

Refuting the impression that he had been detained due to security concerns, he said: "It is nothing but only a lame excuse by the government."

During the interview, which the newspaper said was conducted "through special means", Khan ran out of breath and had difficulty in speaking.

Khan, who was apparently bitter about the attitude of the government, said it was an "irony of fate" that he was being kept in solitary confinement.

He said reports published in newspapers about his good health were "false". Rebutting the government's logic behind his detention, Khan said: "It is simply irrational. I was roaming around the world freely at times when in 1979 numerous fake cases had been registered against me in Holland and I faced no security threat."

Asked about his health, Khan replied: "My lower limbs are losing vitality and I am suffering from extreme lethargy." Khan said his blood pressure was becoming "unmanageable day by day".