ISLAMABAD, Oct 20: Pakistan does not consider it advisable to raise in the United Nations Security Council at this stage the issue of alleged fabrication of nuclear weapons by Iran.

This was stated by Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan at his weekly press briefing here on Wednesday.

Mr Khan said that Pakistan believed that Iran and some European governments had been holding direct dialogue on Tehran's nuclear plans and Islamabad did not regard it advisable to raise the issue at the Security Council at this stage.

Responding to other questions, the spokesman underscored the significant contribution of those working as 'informal channel' away from media spotlight in sorting out problems in search of options and solutions for the Kashmir dispute.

He urged the civil society as a whole and the people of Kashmir, Pakistan and India to put their weight behind the present engagement in which the two sides and the Kashmiri political opinion, particularly the APHC, were energetically engaged after a long time and past failed attempts to solve the dispute.

He said while drawing up a joint schedule of eight meetings between the two countries, there had been no specific suggestion yet for resuming the Kashmir negotiations.

However, the two foreign secretaries assigned to negotiate on Kashmir and peace and security were due to meet in the second half of December.

In reply to a question about the visit of US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca, Mr Khan said it came about after some 'momentous developments' took place on the sidelines of the recent general assembly session of the United Nations in New York. She had been engaged in exchanging views with Pakistan government leaders including President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Tuesday and discussed other related sub-continental issues.

The spokesman brushed aside insinuations that Ms Rocca was here to 'dictate' Pakistan and that she was making covert trips to New Delhi. He stressed that Islamabad and New Delhi were holding bilateral dialogue on their mutual disputes in their own national interests.

Responding to a question from a Chinese journalist, the spokesman said it was very unfortunate that a Chinese worker doing such a wonderful job on the Gomal Zam dam in Waziristan lost his life which was an inexcusable crime.

But, he said that Islamabad believed that Pakistan and China had a very resilient friendship though Pakistan could not save the Chinese engineer's life. He said that Pakistan had made all possible efforts and taken measures to beef up security and safety of all Chinese working here on mega development projects.

Replying to a question, the Mr Khan reminded that the Japanese government had already clarified that a Japanese official had not accused the Pakistan government of extending any assistance to North Korea or other states in their nuclear weapons' programme.

The official had mentioned merely Dr A.Q. Khan's 'confession' of his engagement in a nuclear proliferation network without the knowledge of his government, a Japanese foreign ministry statement had stated.