WASHINGTON, Nov 28: The United States is believed to have assured Pakistan that it has no plan to ask for extradition of nuclear scientist Dr A.Q. Khan for interrogation as some US lawmakers and non-proliferation activists are demanding.

"The US administration has not asked for Dr Khan's extradition," Pakistan's Deputy Chief of Mission here Mohammed Sadiq told Dawn. "And they have assured us that they have no intention to do so," he said.

A group of US officials, talking informally to Dawn, confirmed the assertion. "Officially, we are happy with the cooperation we are getting from Pakistan," said one of them. "And this will continue to be the US position for at least as long as President George Bush occupies the White House," the official said.

Talking about the assurances Pakistan has so far received from the US administration on the issue, Mr Sadiq said: "The Americans acknowledge that it was the information they received from Pakistan that allowed them to bust this network of international nuclear proliferators".

Pakistan had received the information by interrogating Dr Khan and conveyed that to the Americans, said Mr Sadiq. "The Americans are satisfied with this method," he said.

He said the group that sold nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea was not a Pakistani network, as reported by the Western media. "It was an international network and included many people from Western Europe as well," he said. But Mr Sadiq acknowledged that Dr Khan was "unfortunately a part of the network".

Explaining recent reports in the US media containing demands for Dr Khan's extradition and for an international inspection of Pakistan's nuclear facilities, a US official said: "The focus of these reports is Iran. Unfortunately, Pakistan is being dragged into this controversy because the Khan network was involved in Iran too".

Last week, when the New York Times reported that Dr Khan had provided designs for a nuclear bomb to Iran, US officials pointed out that some of the allegations highlighted by the newspaper were not mentioned in the Central Intelligence Agency report that the daily had based its report on.

"The NYT unnecessarily sensationalized the CIA report," the official added. Despite the reassuring attitude of the US administration, Pakistani diplomats here are bracing for more attacks on the issue because they fear that the controversy will continue to simmer for at least as long as the dispute over Iran's nuclear program continues.

"Newspapers, think-tanks, arms proliferation lobbies, they are all talking about this issue and some of them are not very friendly to Pakistan," says Faiz Rehman, the executive director of the Pakistani American Liaison Centre, which operates the congressional Pakistan Caucus on Capitol Hill.