March 4, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 30, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, March 3: Pakistan does not believe in an arms race, though, India’s relentless pursuit of arms and its ambition to impose its hegemony on the region through force of arms is known to everyone, the foreign office said here on Monday.

Spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan said at his weekly news briefing that President Pervez Musharraf’s statement expressing Pakistan’s willingness to join hands with India to fight extremism was part of his offer to hold talks on all subjects and issues with India adding that “we are not shy of talking about different subjects”.

The spokesman was amplifying the president’s reported remarks in a television interview on the sidelines of the NAM summit in Kaula Lumpur last week. In reply to a question, Mr Aziz Khan said India had all along spurned Pakistan’s desire and intentions to settle all issues and disputes peacefully. India’s policy to acquire arms and military strength contributed to exacerbating the difficulties in the region, he said.

Pakistan’s defence policy, the spokesman said, was purely defensive in nature and had remained so throughout, to meet any possible outside military threat to its territorial integrity and national independence.

The spokesman declined to elaborate on an Iraqi delegation’s recent visit to Islamabad to convey a message from President Saddam Hussein. Mr Aziz Khan said the official statement on the visit was clear that Pakistan wanted the Iraq crisis to be resolved by implementing completely all provisions of the UN resolution and permitting the UN weapons inspectors to complete their task in Iraq. He hoped that Pakistan’s delegate in the Security Council would receive the text of the second US-Britain resolution on Iraq by late Monday night.