modern DELHI, May 8 Kyodo India's...

modern DELHI, May 8 Kyodo

India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in succession Thursday rejected a Pakistani proposal that the brace simultaneously scrap their nuclear arsenal, saying India's nuclear program is not specifically aimed at Pakistan.

A Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman said Monday that Pakistan is ready to give up its nuclear weapons if India agrees to do the same.

''Pakistan's atomic program is India-specific. if it were not that India's nuclear program is not Pakistan-specific,'' Vajpayee told Indian parliament forward Thursday, the Indian news agency PTI said.

''We have to withhold in mind developments in other neighboring countries as well,'' Vajpayee said, in arguing for India to withhold its nuclear arsenal, possibly as deterrent against China, a nuclear weapons political division as well as Pakistan.

Vajpayee said India is committed not to be first to use nuclear weapons while Pakistan has however to make such a commitment.

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