MOSCOW, Feb 11: European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Wednesday he had told Pakistan’s government of his concern at the release from house arrest of nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan.

“I don’t think it’s a positive signal, this is the message that I transmitted to the authorities of Pakistan during the week. I think that ... in the moments we are living, with the problems of proliferation, it’s not a good signal,” Mr Solana told Reuters in an interview in Moscow.

A court declared Mr Khan free last week, ending five years of house arrest for the man at the centre of a nuclear proliferation scandal.

Mr Solana, who is heavily involved in international efforts to persuade Iran to curb its nuclear programme, was in Moscow for regular talks on Russian-EU cooperation.—Reuters