ISLAMABAD, Nov 24: Pakistan on Sunday strongly denied a report that it had helped North Korea develop its nuclear weapons programme in return for missile technology that would strengthen its hand against India.

“There is no truth in these reports whatsoever,” said presidential spokesman Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi.

“I do not know where the New York Times gets its information from. I am convinced they need to update their intelligence gathering system,” he told Reuters.

The newspaper said in a report on Saturday that Pyongyang had provided President Musharraf with missile parts allowing him to build a nuclear arsenal able to reach “every strategic site in India”.

In return Islamabad provided North Korea with designs for gas centrifuges and machinery needed to make highly enriched uranium for the country’s latest nuclear weapons project.

“If the country has cooperated (with North Korea on nuclear weaponry) we would have known,” Qureshi said.