Thursday, July 27 2006 16:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: China today (July 27, 2006) declined comment on reports of its all-weather ally Pakistan's efforts to beef up its nuclear arsenal but strongly denied any assistance to Islamabad's weapons-oriented atomic programmes.

"China is aware of the report," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told sources here when asked to comment on the recent report by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) which reported a significant scaling up of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme.

Liu declined to comment on the ISIS report which said that Pakistan is aiming to significantly expand its nuclear weapons arsenal with a powerful heavy-water reactor that could produce plutonium for 40 to 50 warheads.

Asked whether China has supplied the technology for the powerful heavy-water reactor at Khushab nuclear facility, the spokesman reiterated Beijing's stand that its cooperation with Pakistan in the nuclear field was exclusively for peaceful purposes and under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).