Wednesday, March 15 2006 15:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Canada will review the understanding on civilian nuclear cooperation reached with India by the previous regime of the country, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said.

"This is a decision made by the previous government, obviously my new government would want to review the decisions that have been taken. We are against nuclear proliferation," Harper who arrived on a visit here yesterday said after his talks with Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz last night (Mar 14 2006).

Harper apparently was referring to the understanding reached between the Foreign Ministers of India and Canada last year to strengthen cooperation in civilian nuclear energy and dual-use technologies.

The Canadian Prime Minister avoided comments on the Indo-US nuclear agreement but told sources that Canada "would oppose any sort of violation of the NPT" and wanted "strict adherence" to it.

Decades ago, Canada supplied the CIRUS reactor which India recently announced plans to shut down.

The issue of nuclear cooperation with Pakistan was not discussed during his meeting with Aziz, he said adding he believed the dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve Kashmir was going well and hoped it would continue.

Aziz said the talks focussed on the possibility of a free trade agreement (FTA) between Pakistan and Canada and that there were many opportunities to increase trade and investment between the two countries from the current annual trade of around 600 million dollars.