Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri said on Friday that a decision in principle has been taken to send old centrifuges to IAEA in line with Pakistan's obligations as a nuclear power.
 
"We want to demonstrate to the world that Pakistan is a responsible nuclear state and has nothing to hide. Iran too has been asking Pakistan to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in this regard," Kasuri said in a press conference here on Friday.

"Dispatch of outdated and useless centrifuge parts to IAEA would not give any idea of the current status or nature of the country's nuclear program, which is highly sophisticated," he said.

The foreign minister made it clear that Pakistan would never allow inspection of its nuclear installations.

"Similarly, it has been carrying out investigations into allegations of proliferation and would not allow any one to interrogate our scientists," he said.

Answering a question, he said Pakistan doesn't want any action by the United States against Iran as it would have serious fallout for Pakistan.

"Pakistan wants peaceful resolution of the issue," he said.

Pakistan in early March admitted its nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has sold Iran centrifuges, used to enrich uranium into either fuel for nuclear power plants or the explosive core of atom bombs.

The IAEA hopes that in comparing centrifuge parts from Pakistan with those found in Iran, they could ascertain if Iran was telling the truth.

If the two match, it would indicate that Iran acquired the highly enriched uranium contamination from outside, not from its own enrichment activities.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2005)