Pakistan carries out another nuclear test

A roadside school sign just 13 miles from the test zone

Pakistan has carried out another nuclear test explosion, prompting a renewed wave of international criticism.

Confirming the move, Pakistan's foreign ministry said the test took place near the site of five nuclear explosions carried out on Thursday.

Mr Ayub Khan announces the latest tests on Pakistan TV

The Foreign Minister, Gohar Ayub Khan, had earlier spoken of two new tests being carried out.

Pakistan has now conducted more recent weapons tests than India.

But the foreign ministry spokesman said the response was the bare minimum Pakistan could make in self-defence.

He said Pakistan wanted dialogue with India, not a nuclear arms race. He said the people of the region could not afford to divert precious resources away from economic development.

The head of the Foreign Ministry, Shamshad Ahmad, said Pakistan's test series was now complete.

The latest test, in southwestern Baluchistan province, was set off at around 1300 local time (0800 GMT) in the Chagai region near the Iranian border.

After Pakistan's first five explosions, Mr Khan said his country had redressed the strategic and military balance.

India 'expected test'

India's External Affairs Ministry said that it had expected Pakistan's second round of nuclear tests.

"We have been monitoring Pakistan's clandestine programme very closely and all this is factored into our defence policy," it said.

The United States, Britain and France have all strongly criticised Pakistan.

China - which is also a nuclear power - has said the latest explosions have deepened its concern over the possibility of nuclear arms race in South Asia.

The BBC Defence Correspondent Jonathan Marcus says Pakistan has raised the stakes again. He says it is not clear why it needed the latest test, but United States sources say the first round may have been less than fully successful.

Earlier, Pakistan's leading nuclear scientist, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, said the biggest of the devices exploded underground on Thursday was nearly twice the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Pakistan has said that with the tests completed it will produce nuclear weapons for defensive purposes.

The BBC correspondent in Islamabad says now that Pakistan has conducted more tests than Delhi, Pakistan has opened itself up to the charge that it is no longer responding to an arms race initiated by India, but that it is now contributing to the military build up in the region.