A new unit in the foreign ministry, the Strategic Export Control Division (SECDIV), will now be the only authority able to approve the export of nuclear-related items and missile technology, the ministry said.

It would also have authority over biological agents and toxins, it said.

Representatives from other ministries, including finance, commerce and the strategic planning division, will be part of the export control authority, the foreign ministry's spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told reporters.

"The adoption of Export Control Act ... and the establishment of SECDIV are a continuing manifestation of Pakistan's strong commitment to non-proliferation and its determination to fulfill its national and international export control commitments," Aslam said.

The Act was passed in September 2004 to prevent the proliferation of nuclear and biological weapons.

Pakistan was rocked by an arms proliferation scandal that same year when the architect of the country's atomic weapons programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, publicly confessed to leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Khan was given a conditional pardon by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, who insisted the government was not involved.

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