Jamshedpur (Jharkhand): The External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, on April 14 said that the grounds on which the US-led coalition forces invaded Iraq also existed in Pakistan that could warrant a similar military action against the country.

Elaborating, Sinha told reporters that there were three reasons which drove the Anglo-US forces to attack Iraq, possession of weapons of mass destruction, export of terrorism and absence of democracy, all of which existed in Pakistan.

He said that Pakistan was not only proliferating weapons of mass destruction, but they also export cross border terrorism and there was no democracy in that country, which made it the 'fittest' case for an Iraq-like military action.

Sinha cautioned people against being over-sensitive to 'each and every comment that is being made by some countries' over the developments in Jammu and Kashmir.

He made this comment when asked to react to the US Secretary of State Colin Powell's recent statement that US focus would be on India-Pakistan after Iraq.

Sinha said that the US administration had warned Pakistan to put an end to the cross- border terrorism and imposed sanctions recently.

He reiterated that India would not hold talks with Pakistan till they end the cross- border terrorism and also stop exporting terrorism to other countries.

PTI