Pakistan rejected on Monday India's concern over a test-fire of surface-to-surface missile Hatif-Vand, saying there should be no cause of concern for India as both the countries are nuclear states.  

Pakistan Saturday test-fired nuclear capable ballistic missile, which can hit target at 1500 kilometers.

"We have acquired nuclear capability to deter any aggression and we test our missile capability periodically to validate our progress in the field," Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told a weekly news briefing on Monday.

"This test will not affect the peace process and would not also change the ground realities," he said.

"There is no coincidence on the missile test fire and change of government in India," the spokesman said.

Masood Khan said Pakistan is waiting signal from the Indian side for Foreign Secretary level talks but due to change of government in New Delhi their response has been delayed.

He said nuclear Confidence Building Measures are not a real issue but the issue is to make headway in the talks to resolve all outstanding issues.

Islamabad and New Delhi will have to concentrate on resolving all issues including Kashmir which have been agreed between the two countries during the visit of former Indian Prime Minister Attal Behari Vajpayee, he said.

Replying to a question, the spokesman said Sino-India relationship model is not applicable to Pak-India relations as there are various dissimilarities.

(Xinhua News Agency June 1, 2004)