WASHINGTON, June 5: The Nawaz Sharif government had refused to receive a US delegation, which wanted to prevent Pakistan's retaliatory nuclear tests in May 1998, but the then army chief intervened to arrange the visit, says a retired American general.

Gen Anthony Zinni, who headed the US Central Command from 1997 to 2000, said that soon after India tested its nuclear devices on May 11 and 13, President Bill Clinton decided to send a delegation to Pakistan to persuade Islamabad not to respond.

A former deputy secretary of state, Strobe Talbot, headed the delegation and Gen Zinni was ordered to accompany him because he had friendly relations with several Pakistani generals.

"The mission was not going to be easy. Relations between the United States and Pakistan were already tense," says the general in his book, "Battle Ready."

At several places in the book, Gen Zinni regrets the way the United States had treated Pakistan, acknowledging: "The Pakistanis had backed our efforts in Afghanistan - there were now a large number of refugees - and a state of chaos - and we had dumped them."

Just when the US delegation was prepared to board the Centcom 707 for a 22-hour flight to Islamabad from Tampa, Florida, "word came that the Pakistani government had decided not to approve the visit," says Gen Zinni.

"A flurry of diplomatic calls" from the waiting room at the Tampa airbase "kept getting negative results," remembers the general.

Gen Zinni then proposed to Mr Talbot "a back channel approach," telling him that if he called Gen Jehangir Karamat, the then Chief of Staff of the Pakistani military, he would okay the trip.

"Karamat was a man of great honour and integrity, and a friend. Relations with Pakistan hung on the thin thread of a personal relationship that Gen Karamat and I agreed to maintain," said Gen Zinni.

"When I called Gen Karamat, he promised to take care of the problem; a few minutes later we were in the air further proof that the relationship between our two militaries remained strong, in spite of the strained relationships elsewhere."

In Pakistan, the delegation met several times Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his ministers, but was unable to convince them not to test.

Throughout the book, Gen Zinni recalls his meetings with Pakistani generals with affection and respect, often describing them as men of honour and integrity.