Islamabad, October 18
China has agreed in principle to offer four to six nuclear power plants to Pakistan and the issue is expected to be finalised during President Hu Jintao’s visit to Islamabad next month.

Sources told Dawn on Tuesday that an understanding to this effect had been reached between the two countries when President Gen Pervez Musharraf visited China in February this year.

Pakistan, trying to meet its target of generating 88,000 MW nuclear power by 2030, has asked China for 600 MW and 1,000 MW power plants which are deemed cost-effective with good output.

China has already supplied two nuclear power plants of 300 MW capacity each to Pakistan; Chasma-1 has been commissioned while Chasma-2 is in the process of being set up.

Chinese officials, during their visit to Pakistan in December in connection with the concrete-pouring ceremony at Chashma-2, had assured authorities here that more nuclear power plants would be provided to the country.

“We will enhance our cooperation with Islamabad, particularly in setting up nuclear power plants in Pakistan,” a source quoted one of those Chinese officials as saying.

The source said there were indications that the issue would figure in talks between the two presidents, adding that Beijing looked considerate to oblige Pakistan despite being a member of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group which does not encourage offering nuclear power to non-member countries.

Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri told journalists on Monday that the Chinese president’s would be a ‘very successful visit’.

The sources said the issue was again discussed with the Chinese leadership when President Musharraf visited Beijing on June 15 to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.

This time, Pakistan’s emphasis will be on the immediate purchase of two power plants so that Pakistan’s growing energy requirements could be met to some extent.

Seoul, October 18
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has made his first public appearance since the communist country’s nuclear test last week, the North’s state media said today.

Kim, accompanied by top military and party officers, attended a performance by the song and dance ensemble of the Korean People’s Army, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

“He waved back to the enthusiastically cheering artists and audience and congratulated them on their successful performance,” it said.

The agency did not say when or where the art performance was staged, only that it was held to mark the 80th anniversary on October 17 of the formation of a group known as the Down With Imperialism Union.

It was Kim’s first known public appearance since the country conducted an underground nuclear test on October 9. His last reported public appearance was on October 5.

He remained out of the public eye for 40 days after his country test-fired missiles in July. — AFP

Tokyo, October 18
The United States turned up the heat today on North Korea as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rallied Asian nations to squeeze the secretive regime of its trading lifeblood.

Amid fears of a second atom bomb test, she began her Asian tour calling for concerted action to enforce UN sanctions against North Korea. She pledged that Washington would protect its allies Japan and South Korea.

At the same time, television stations around the world beamed footage of massed ranks of North Koreans at a huge, torch-lit display of synchronised unity in the capital Pyongyang.

North Korean leader Kim made his first known public appearance since the October 9 nuclear test at a separate event marking the 80th anniversary of the “Down-with-Imperialism Union” founded by his father. The state news agency KCNA said Mr Kim was greeted enthusiastically and he waved back.

Ms Rice is spearheading a diplomatic drive to contain Korea’s nuclear ambitions through inspections of North Korean cargo, part of a raft of tough UN sanctions imposed in response to Pyongyang’s atom bomb test.

Her plan, designed to ensure the erratic regime does not sell its nuclear arsenal to terrorists or rogue states, would involve inspection or monitoring of cargo leaving or entering North Korea by sea, land and air, US officials said.

Ms Rice said she would use her talks in Japan and South Korea to reassure both nations that they would remain under the US protective umbrella.

“The way to deal with the security threat that it poses is to draw on the very strong alliances that we have with South Korea and Japan on which they can fully rely for their security from this specific threat,” she said. —AFP

Colombo, October 18
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels today launched a major attack on Sri Lanka’s southern naval port of Galle, killing two persons and injuring 10 others.

Five boats of the LTTE entered the Galle harbour and carried out powerful explosions, the police said.

The naval facilities were under fire and at least two persons were dead in the earlier stages of the attack. The navy maintains its ammunition dumps at the base.

The military has sent gunboats into Galle — a popular destination with foreign tourists — to counter the attack by the rebels, the police said. — PTI

Baghdad, October 18
Nine US soldiers were killed in a single day of fighting in Iraq, their headquarters said today, amid a steep spike in military deaths.

In the bloodiest of yesterday’s incidents, four soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside booby-trap west of the Iraqi capital.

A statement said the four serving with Multinational Division Baghdad were killed at around 6:50 am (09:20 IST).

Separately, another soldier was shot dead when his patrol was ambushed in Baghdad almost three hours later, while a US marine died of wounds “sustained during enemy action” in the western province of Anbar.

Also yesterday, three soldiers from “Task Force Lightning” were killed and one was wounded “as a result of enemy action” during operations in the Diyala province, north of Baghdad.

Over the first 17 days of the month US soldiers have been dying at a rate of almost four a day. The latest killings brought the number of US military personnel to have died in the Iraq campaign since the March, 2003 invasion to 2,775.— AFP