ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: President General Pervez Musharraf said on Wednesday that Pakistan would not freeze its nuclear programme unilaterally under any circumstances.

“We have a threat on our eastern border from a country which is about seven times our size. We maintain a strategy of deterrence — conventional and unconventional — to guard ourselves, to ensure that there is a no-win situation for our big neighbour,” President Musharraf told CNN in an interview.

“Why isn’t the world asking Indians to freeze their programme?” he asked.

“If they freeze we will also freeze,” he added.

The president said: “There will be no war if there is a no-win situation and we want to ensure there is a no-win situation through a strategy of deterrence.

“We will maintain that deterrence level in conventional as well as in unconventional weapons.”

To a question, he said it was necessary to resolve the issue of Palestine and Kashmir to remove the prevailing anti-West and anti-US feelings among the Muslims all across the world.

“Why is it that the perception in the Muslim world is so much anti-West and anti-US,” he said, adding the route forward was the resolution of political disputes.

He said it was imperative to solve the issues of Palestine and Kashmir which would really go a long way in moderating Muslim views.

“If we resolve the issues of Palestine and Kashmir then the same elements which are fighting and showing extremism will have no justification for their actions,” President Musharraf said.

“There will be no ground for Hamas, Hezbollah, Lashkar-i-Taiba or Jaish-i-Muhammad to carry on with their activities,” he added.

President Musharraf dispelled the impression that Pakistan had any link whatsoever with North Korea or Iran in the nuclear field.

He said earlier Pakistan was blamed about cooperation with North Korea in the nuclear field and now again there were similar allegations about Iran. “These are not at all the realities,” he stressed.

With North Korea, he said, there was contact for purchase of surface-to-air missiles because of the tension with “our big neighbour” in the east and a degree of imbalance in air power.

“That was conventional surface-to-air missile, in fact, a short-range missile which we have now started producing ourself. So, even that is not there,” he added.

The president said with Iran there had never been any defence contact. “I have been assuring everyone that neither at present nor in future there is any question of the sort.”

He said: “There is a guarantee that we will never proliferate and also we will put all our strategic assets under strong custodial control. We got very organized National Command Authority and a Strategic Planning Commission.”

President Musharraf further said: “There is no possibility of a leakage or falling of nuclear assets in wrong hands, or passing on information to any country.”

OSAMA, AL QAEDA: He went on to say that Pakistan was conducting operation to arrest Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda operatives with the assistance of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).