KARACHI, Sept 13: President General Pervez Musharraf said here on Monday that Pakistan had no offensive designs against any country and only wanted to safeguard its honour and integrity.

Inaugurating Ideas-2004 defence exhibition at the Expo Centre, the president said maintaining conventional and non-conventional weapons was a guarantee for peace in the region. "Our arms are for peace," he added.

He said the Ideas reflected the government's efforts to energize commercial and economic activities in the country through export of defence products. A robust defence manufacturing industry helps in reducing dependence on others. "We are now looking for the defence export joint venture and collaboration with foreign countries."

The president said sanctions against Pakistan had negative as well as positive effects. It helped to indigenize weapons production and encouraged the nation to maintain a credible deterrence and movement towards self-reliance.

President Musharraf said that since the holding of first Ideas-2000, "we have demonstrated progress in our defence industry and set up the Defence Export Promotion Organization which has acted as a showcase of our defence capabilities".

The president spoke highly about successful collaboration with China and France in defence equipment production. He said he was glad to see participation from an increased number of companies, delegations and exhibitors in Ideas-2004.

This indicates the interest the world is taking in Pakistan and which is enhancing the reputation of the country in the comity of nations. He praised the organizers for holding a successful event and a seminar on Monday morning.

He announced that Pakistan shared the international interest in the theme of Ideas-2004 -'Arms for peace'. This theme applied particularly to Pakistan, he said. He declared that Pakistan had no designs against any country and all that it wanted was to guard its honour and dignity and "for this we have adopted the strategy of defensive deterrence".

He said the government had been following the policy of deterrence to maintain conventional and unconventional balance of forces to guarantee peace in the region. He stated that Pakistan had a very large defence manufacturing and supporting infrastructure and it met the nation's demand satisfactorily.

The president said: "Now we have reached the stage where we are looking for export enhancement to other friendly countries and to enter into joint venture with them." He said Pakistan had a long history of defence collaboration with various countries of the Afro-Asian region. Now it wanted to collaborate in defence production and this was the area which could assist in the economic growth of Pakistan.

He pointed out that Pakistan collaborated very successfully with 'our close friend China' for the production of Al Khalid tanks which were one of the top machines in the world with many qualities.

He also spoke of the modernization of Al Zarar tank of the 1960s at a minimal cost and described it as a great achievement of Pakistan. He said Pakistan army would be equipped with Al Khalid and Al Zarar tanks which were second to none.

About Pakistan Air Force, he said the Karakoram series of trainer aircraft had been produced and now "we are going for the Thunder aircraft". As far as Pakistan Navy was concerned, the president said, "we are looking forward to F22P frigate".

He also spoke of the collaboration with France for the manufacture of Agosta 19-B submarine. The president said: "Our greatest plus is the fact that we had the experience of weapons from all over the world, from the east to the west, and had specialized in the weapons from the United States, Britain, Ukraine, France, China, Russia, Korea, etc. Later, the president witnessed a dynamic display of Al Khalid, Al Zarar tanks and armoured vehicles. -APP