Musharraf did not disclose details of the test but said domestic critics who believed that Pakistan had decided to roll back its nuclear and missile programmes were living in a "fool's paradise," the Dawn newspaper said.

He did not specify if the test would be of a nuclear-capable missile.

"It has become a joke that people with negative minds are propagating the ill-notions of roll-back," he was quoted as telling a group of Pakistani journalists late Wednesday.

Daily The News quoted Musharraf as telling journalists that it would be an "extremely important substantive test", most likely of a long range missile.

Early last month nuclear armed Pakistan successfully test fired a ballistic missile Hatf V, which has a range of 1,500 kilometers (930 miles). The missile could carry nuclear warheads deep inside India.

However officials said Musharraf, who witnessed the June 4 test, insisted it was meant to silence domestic critics rather than send signals to nuclear rival India.

It came amid fears that the government may be forced by international pressure to scale back its nuclear arsenal after the architect of Pakistan's atomic bomb Abdul Qadeer Khan confessed in February to selling nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

Pakistan went public as a nuclear power when it conducted nuclear tests in May 1998 in response to tests by India the same month.

The Hatf V is part of a series of Ghauri missiles. The intermediate Hatf V was also tested on May 29. Pakistan's military last month said the test was "part of a series of tests planned for the Ghauri missile system."

WAR.WIRE