Islamabad: Pakistan has said it would take "appropriate" steps if India test-fired Agni III long-range ballistic missile, while asserting that it also has a right to launch a pre-emptive strike if the other side thinks the same way.

Pakistan would take "appropriate" steps on how to respond to India's plans to test- fire Agni III missile when the time comes, Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on April 7.

Reacting to Defence Minister George Fernandes' remarks that India is developing and making all efforts to test fire the missile, he said Pakistan was not interested in arms race and does not want to be provoked.

"But it finds itself constrained to do something when an aggressive country makes futile attempts to intimidate us," he said, adding, "If they want us to be intimidated by such acts, they are totally mistaken. We know how to defend our motherland."

Referring to External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha's assertions that India has a better case for pre-emptive strike against Pakistan that US had against Iraq, Sheikh Rashid said Islamabad too has a similar right.

"India is a fit case for pre-emptive strikes," he said.

Rashid alleged that "India is taking unjustified advantage of our sincerity. If India thinks, and could do so, we also have the right to go for pre-emptive strike."

He also charged India with possessing chemical and biological weapons besides nuclear weapons and that it kept some of them with a neighbouring country. He, however, did not name the neighbour.

PTI