ISLAMABAD, Jan 14: US Senator John Kerry said on Saturday that a civilian nuclear cooperation pact with his country was “an appropriate goal” for Pakistan but linked the same with democracy and nuclear non-proliferation.

“India is a democracy and it has adhered to the non-proliferation agreement in all the years of its involvement with nuclear facilities. This is not yet true of Pakistan, though Pakistan is moving in that direction,” he told reporters after a marathon meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Saturday.

Mr Kerry, a former Democratic presidential candidate, said Pakistan and the United States could explore a common ground for cooperation in civilian nuclear technology.

He said during his meeting with President General Pervez Musharraf he would discuss things that Pakistan needed to do to qualify for equal treatment in this regard — a subject which he had also discussed with the prime minister.

He said that when President Bush comes to the region there would be discussions on it. “In the meantime, we can find ways for common ground to make it possible. It is an appropriate goal. We need to work together and, hopefully, we can get there,” he said.

About remarks he had made in India on civilian nuclear cooperation between Washington and New Delhi, Mr Kerry said he supported the proposal in principle, but said it still needed to be fleshed out in detail, particularly with respect to the separation of civilian and military facilities. “So I need to see the final agreement. In principle, it is moving in the right direction,” the US senator added.

Mr Kerry praised Pakistan for its cooperation in the difficult period following the 9/11 incident. “If we stay on course and work together, all of us would be stronger”. According to him, Pakistan is interested in “making certain that radical, extremists and foreign intruders do not hijack either the country or the religion”.

Shaukat Aziz said after a two-hour meeting with Mr Kerry that he had told the US senator that Pakistan was a declared nuclear power that needed more electricity for sustained economic development. In this connection, he said, Pakistan is pursuing a programme to generate over 8,000 MW of nuclear energy by 2020 and wants cooperation with the world in nuclear technology for power generation.