New Delhi: A prominent Baluchi politician has claimed that Pakistan is developing the Gwadar port and the vast coastal area around it to provide facilities to the biggest American Naval fleet under the US Central Command, media reports have said.

"For this, the entire coastal land stretching 40 miles inland would be separated from Baluchistan and given to the Americans, who will control oil trade in the region and keep Iran under challenge," leader of Jamhoori Watan Party (Baluchistan) Nawab Akbar Bugti has been quoted as saying in the Pakistani newspapers 'Nawa-e-Waqt' and 'Jung'.

The Nawab, who is also the Bugti tribal head, claimed that under a plan, the area stretching from Karachi to Jiwani including Gwadar would be "taken away" from Pakistan and alleged that "the vast coastal belt stretching 40 miles inland had already been detached" from Baluchistan.

The Americans, he said, would "control the maritime oil and international shipping and all other trade in addition to challenging Iran", according to news reports.

On the construction activities currently being undertaken in the Gwadar port by China, Bugti said Beijing was "merely a contractor and will quietly step aside after the port is complete to allow the Americans to take over".

China was not interested in clashing with the United States on the issue, the Baloch tribal leader was quoted as saying.

Bugti's statement came during the official visit of CENTCOM chief General John Abizaid to Pakistan earlier this week.

PTI