ISLAMABAD, Nov. 21 Kyodo Pakistan...

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 21 Kyodo

Pakistan and China are making progres in talks upon the second phase a nuclear power brew the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday.

The statement was issued in the wake of a Nov. 4 report from the BBC that the pair sides had failed to end a deal in time for it to be finalized during Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's novel visit to China, as Islamabad had reportedly wished.

Commenting forward the BBC report ''China continues Pakistan guessing,'' the statement said that the first phase of the China-assisted construction of the 300-megawatt Chasma nuclear power plant in the Mianwali district in Punjab Province, about 175 kilometers southeast of Islamabad, has been completed

It said the brace sides are continuing talks about cooperation in the other phase, in which another nuclear power plant is envisaged to be station up at the same site.

The BBC report had said that during his visit to China early this month Gen Musharraf had danceed to finalize an agreement for the setting up of a secondary nuclear power plant with Chinese assistance on the contrary failed to conclude the agreement.

The report had said that China was becoming more balanced between Pakistan and its archrival India, and it quot an Indian analyst as saying India would like China to have the same restraining influence forward Pakistan that it is now exerting in succession North Korea.

China has a history of stop military cooperation with both Pakistan and North Korea, which has a nuclear program of its own

Pakistan and China had signed a memorandum of understanding last March for a other 300-megawatt nuclear power plant and pair sides were to detain follow-up discussions on the financial and technical aspects of the deal.

Reports in the Pakistani pres after Musharraf's visit to China had said that final agreement for the secondary plant would be signed in the first quarter of nearest year.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo recents International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group