"Both countries (Pakistan and India) do the tests. It is a sovereign right of a country to take any measure for its defence," chairman of Senate foreign relations committee Mushahid Hussain told AFP.

"We reserve the sovereign right to improve our defence capability and same right be granted to other countries," Hussain said.

"We do not take exception to that, any other country can do it also."

Asked if Pakistan was concerned over Sunday's testing of 700 kilometres (435 miles) range surface-to-surface Agni missile by India, Hussain said "absolutely not."

"We have a strong deterrent and defence capability," Hussain said.

He said Pakistan stood for a reduction of the arms race and had been "proposing various initiatives based on reciprocity."

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

The South Asian neighbours held nuclear tests two weeks apart in 1998 and have since come close to war twice in their dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

The Agni test comes within weeks of talks between India and Pakistan on reducing the risk of nuclear confrontation.

In the June 19-20 talks in New Delhi, both sides agreed to set up a hotline to prevent nuclear confrontation, to continue a ban on nuclear tests and to conclude an agreement on informing each other in advance about impending missile tests.

It also comes just days after media reports in Pakistan quoted President Pervez Musharraf as saying that Islamabad would conduct an "important" missile test in two months' time.

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 Thursday.

The president did not specify whether the test would be of a nuclear-capable missile.

WAR.WIRE