Islamabad, May 23
Pakistan has clinched a $ 600-million defence deal with China, which includes construction of four F-22P frigates for the Pakistani Navy, upgradation of the Karachi dockyard and transfer of technology for indigenous production of modern surface fleet.

The deal has been finalised and the keel for construction of the F-22P frigates would be laid at the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai this year, Chief of Pakistan Navy, Admiral Muhammad Afzal Tahir, who concluded a week-long visit China yesterday, told the state-run APP.

Under the deal, three frigates would be built in Shanghai and the fourth one would be constructed at Karachi dockyard which would also be upgraded to enable Pakistan to build its own fleet of frigates later.

Tahir said the first frigate would be delivered to Pakistan in 2008 and the other three by 2013 along with transfer of technology.

The frigates would be equipped with organic helicopters specially designed for surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles along with numerous associated self-defence systems, he said, adding that the “modalities of design and configuration are at the final stages.”

The four Chinese Frigates would be in addition to the four Pakistan Navy would be buying from Greece. The deal to buy four naval vessels from Greece was struck during the just concluded visit of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to Athens.

The frigate deal with China follow the two sides’ decision to jointly develop JF-Thunder fighter, which they plan to begin shortly. Also Pakistan Air Force plans to buy new Chinese made J-10 fighters in big numbers.

The acquisition of new surface vessels by Pakistan Navy in addition to strengthening its submarine fleet with French made Agosta submarines was seen as an attempt by Pakistan Navy to catch-up with its Indian counterpart.

Pakistani Navy has seven frigates at present compared to 13 of the Indian Navy and could match the neighbouring country vessel by vessel by 2010. It is expected to have 15 frigates by 2013.

In addition, Pakistan and China jointly developed Gwader deep see port in the southwest Balochistan close to Iranian coast, considered a strategic port designed to be a “listening post” to keep a tab on the shipping lanes of Arabian sea.

Tahir said signing of the $ 600-million frigate deal was a milestone between the defence cooperation of Pakistan and China. This is for the first time that the two navies reached a high-level collaboration to augment surface fleet.

The project, he said, also reflects the keen interest of their senior political leadership to deepen the defence ties.

To a question, he said China made marvellous progress in the defence production sector in the recent years and the quality of their products are meeting international standard.

Admiral Tahir said during his stay in Beijing, he had very productive meetings with Chinese Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan and other officials, and visited Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai and naval installations in Qingdao.

Chinese Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan assured him that the Chinese armed forces are ready to further strengthen cooperation with Pakistan, he said.

Admiral Tahir said China is Pakistan’s long time ally and main supplier of military equipment. Their defence cooperation has always been a source of peace and stability in the region, he claimed. — PTI

Beijing, May 23
China today acknowledged assisting Iran's pursuit of "peaceful" nuclear energy needs under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards but rejected Western criticism of aiding Tehran's alleged atomic weapons programme.

"Some countries have been conducting cooperation with Iran in the peaceful use of nuclear technology. China is one of them," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters here at a bi-weekly briefing.

"We have reported our cooperation with Iran to the IAEA and our cooperation conforms to the positions set out in the NPT and it is also subject to the safeguards of the IAEA," he said.

"We cannot accept these kinds of accusations against China," Mr Liu said while reacting to Western media reports alleging that Iran is most likely to have used hexafluoride gas it had purchased from China in 1991 as material for enriching uranium.

He said the principled position of China was to oppose proliferation of nuclear weapons and not to export sensitive equipment and technologies related to uranium enrichment and processing.

"Since 1992, China has been a party to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and we have been honouring our commitments," Mr Liu claimed.

Last month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran had joined the ranks of countries with nuclear technology, in the wake of a series of successful experiments in which Iranian scientists had taken uranium hexafluoride gas, introduce it into a small number of centrifuges, and produced a small quantity of low enriched uranium. — PTI 

Islamabad, May 23
Offering to lay pipelines to enable China to procure gas and oil through Iran and Central Asian Republics, Pakistan said today that it looked to Beijing to build more nuclear power plants for it to offset the US refusal to extend the Indo-US nuclear deal to it.

Pakistan is exploring possibilities to construct an oil pipeline from its Chinese-aided Gwader port in southwest Balochistan to Western China which will considerably reduce time and distance for transportation of oil to China from West Asian countries, Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said.

Pakistan and China will soon undertake upgradation of the Karakorum highway that had been built with Chinese assistance to convert it into an all-weather corridor to facilitate bilateral trade, Aziz told a seminar here organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies to mark 55 years of Pakistan-China ties.

Islamabad is also exploring possibilities to construct oil and gas pipelines on its coastline to western China that will considerably shorten the distance and time for oil and gas transportation from the Gulf countries to China, he said. — PTI

Houston, May 23
Overcoming negative reviews and criticism by Christian groups, “The Da Vinci Code” broke records in its opening weekend and raked in $ 238.1 million in worldwide ticket sales, to generate the second-highest global opening.

The controversial $ 125- million film, based on Dan Brown’s best-seller, opened last Friday and millions of fans flocked to the movie despite poor reviews, rocketing the Ron Howard-directed film to the top of the North American box office with a three-day take of $ 77.1 million.

The records would place the movie behind only “Star Wars: III — The Revenge of the Sith” which made $ 253 million dollars in its first days.

Sony, which released the film, showed it to the critics only last Tuesday, thus managing to keep it under tight guard. By that time, the movie’s dire reception at the Cannes Film Festival had made headlines.

Reviews across the world were largely negative. “Sony did a phenomenal job of nurturing the film and bringing interest to a fever pitch,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, which tracks box-office figures.

According to the Sony spokesperson, “The Da Vinci Code” is the sixth Sony film this year to open at No. 1.

Sales were helped by fans who bought more than 60 million copies of the novel by Dan Brown and by a worldwide opening that included 3,735 theaters in North America. — PTI

London, May 23
The Hindu Forum of Britain has asked Asia House in London to withdraw an exhibition of the works of Indian artist M.F. Hussain, claiming his "offensive" paintings of Hindu gods and goddesses have outraged community members around the world.

The forum is also backing efforts of the Hindu Human Rights Group which will organise demonstrations against the exhibition on May 27.

"The exhibition depicting Hindu deities in the nude is already causing considerable offence to many of the UK's 700,000 Hindus," Ramesh Kallidai, secretary-general of the forum, said yesterday adding that the body would urge Asia House to withdraw the exhibition.

The Hindu groups have expressed dismay over the fact that the High Commissioner of India, Mr Kamalesh Sharma, chose to inaugurate the exhibition.

Hussain is no stranger to controversy. Earlier, this year he apologised for a painting in which he sketched 'Bharat Mata' (Mother India) as a nude goddess. Following complaints he withdrew it from a charity auction to raise money for victims of the South Asia earthquake. — PTI