Pakistan test-fires nuclear-capable missile

Pakistan successfully test fired a medium-range nuclear-capable missile early today, an army spokesman told The Associated Press.

The Hatf-III reportedly has a range of 290km (180 miles) and can carry conventional and non-conventional weapons. Its range means it can hit many important targets inside rival India.

“We have successfully test-fired the Hatf-III,” said army spokesman General Shaukat Sultan. It was not immediately clear whether India was informed of the plans before the test.

The missile test came with Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali in the middle of a visit to the US, and days after he met with US President George. W Bush.

India and Pakistan have frequently used missile tests as a form of diplomatic muscle-flexing.

Pakistan’s last missile test came on March 26, when it fired off a short-range missile shortly after India announced a similar test.

In 1998, the two countries conducted tit-for-tat nuclear weapons tests, shocking the world and earning years of sanctions.

Relations between Pakistan and India had been thought to be on the mend after Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said in April that he sought peace talks, including over the flashpoint issue of Kashmir.

But talks never got off the ground, and officials on both sides have resumed the name-calling and mudslinging that has so often characterised affairs on the subcontinent.

The two countries have fought two of their three wars over the former princely state of Kashmir, which is split between them but which both claim in its entirety.

They nearly came to blows again in 2002, each rushing hundreds of thousands of troops to the border before international mediation brought them back from the brink.