ISLAMABAD, March 15: China will provide advanced military technology to Pakistan to help improve its weaponry in terms of ‘value addition, accuracy and range,’ sources told Dawn on Wednesday.

The decision was taken during President Pervez Musharraf’s recent visit to China.

Sources said Beijing had decided to forge ‘greater military cooperation’ with Islamabad.

China will initially help Pakistan develop its capability to manufacture quality ammunition for artillery and tanks, followed by other high-tech arms.

The sources said a number of visits of military delegations exchanges between the two countries were being finalised by their governments to assess Pakistan’s urgent military requirements.

The Chinese leadership assured President Musharraf that Beijing would not want ‘conventional military imbalance’ in the region, so it would continue helping Pakistan attain better expertise in manufacturing quality arms and ammunitions.

The sources said the Chinese government was likely to offer two more nuclear power plants of 325 megawatts capacity each to Pakistan.

They said China had indicated its willingness to launch more joint ventures with Pakistan for manufacturing military aircraft.

Both the countries will shortly start serial production for the JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft, which they have developed jointly.

Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) Chairman Maj-Gen Mohammad Javed, when contacted, said negotiations were under way for increasing military cooperation between the two countries.

He said China was expected to help improve value addition, accuracy and range of Pakistani small arms and ammunition. “There exist substantial possibilities for increased defence cooperation between Pakistan and China,” he said.

Asked about similar joint ventures with other countries, he said talks were being held with France and Germany in this connection.

Some countries, he said, maintained that Pakistan was manufacturing high quality inexpensive small weapons of international standard, which could lead to joint ventures with them for producing the arms for export.

Responding to a question, he said workload of the POF had increased by 85 per cent because of export orders.

Pakistan earned over $56 million during the past year by selling weapons to Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Bangladesh and some Middle Eastern countries, he said.