Berlin: Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha on October 8 dismissed Pakistan's second ballistic missile test in five days as "meaningless".

Asked what India would do, Sinha replied during a visit to Berlin, "Nothing. They are a sovereign country. They are testing their missiles, good luck to them."

An Indian Defence ministry spokesman had said earlier that India was not planning any tit-for-tat missile test in response to Pakistan's latest launch.

In Islamabad, a Defence ministry statement said Pakistan had successfully test-fired a medium-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile, named Shaheen.

Sinha was speaking in Berlin after a meeting with his German counterpart Joschka Fischer during which they discussed the simmering conflict between India and Pakistan.

Almost 700 people have been killed in Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir since early August, when India announced state elections there.

"The core problem between Pakistan and India is the issue of cross-border terrorism," Sinha said, referring to New Delhi's charges that Pakistan supports Islamic militants waging a 13-year insurgency against India.

Sinha said India had exercised "maximum restraint" and would continue to do so, including on the issue of nuclear weapons.

"From India there is no threat of escalation. India is committed to no first use," he added. "There is no such commitment from Pakistan, unfortunately."

Fischer, the German Foreign Minister called for urgent dialogue to help resolve the vexed Kashmir issue, over which India and Pakistan have already fought several wars.

Sinha praised the state of German-Indian relations and said he hoped to improve ties also with the European Union.

German President Johannes Rau is to visit India in the first week of March, and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is due in Germany sometime next year, Sinha said.