May 7, 2005	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 27, 1426

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KUALA LUMPUR, May 6: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Friday that Pakistan would, under certain conditions, send centrifuge parts for tests by the UN’s atomic agency to help determine whether Iran has been secretly developing nuclear weapons. The parts could allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna to determine whether highly enriched uranium contamination found in Iran had originated there, or if it had come from Pakistan.

“Yes, we will send these parts under certain conditions,” the prime minister said while talking to a group of journalists here.

“We have various discussions going on with the IAEA as part of a process which relates to the situation between Iran and various countries. We are willing to cooperate with them to come up with some credible solution to this problem.” The prime minister did not detail what conditions would have to be met before the parts are despatched, but his comments appeared to go further than President Pervez Musharraf’s statement in March that Pakistan would ‘consider’ sending the parts to Vienna.

“I was in Iran recently and Pakistan believes the current nuclear position in Iran ought to be settled peacefully,” he said. “The European initiative is a good way to go in solving this matter and we certainly feel that military action is not the right approach.”

AL QAEDA LEADER: In reply to a question about the recent arrest of a top Al Qaeda militant Abu Faraj Al Libbi, Prime Minister Aziz said: “I know that interrogations are going on and that they are proceeding well.”

The prime minister was non-committal when asked whether Al Libbi might lead investigators to Osama bin Laden.

“We have no idea about Osama bin Laden. But certainly Mr Al Libbi was a senior member of Al Qaeda and we were on the lookout for him for a while and interrogations are in progress,” he added.

INDIAN INVESTMENT: The prime minister said Indian companies would not be allowed to invest in Pakistan yet as economic relations had to move in tandem with progress on other issues, including the Kashmir dispute.

Pakistan welcomed investment from all over the world and it was flowing in, contributing to faster economic growth than ever before. Asked whether this applied to Indian companies, he replied: “Not yet, no. At the moment economic relations are not at the level which they could be because they have to move in tandem with progress on many issues including the core issue of Kashmir.”

The prime minister, however, said that the “atmospherics between the two countries are getting better. Trade has increased and we hope gradually other forms of economic cooperation — be it investment, be it freer trade, more travel — will happen.”— Agencies