Pakistan denies nuclear reports

The Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, has denied allegations that his country helped the North Korean nuclear programme.

He also called on North Korea to abandon its atomic weapons programme in a newspaper interview during his visit to South Korea.

The Pakistani president met his South Korean counterpart, Roh Moo-hyun, on Thursday to discuss the crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Allegations that Pakistan had supplied North Korea with technology for its nuclear programme appeared last year in the New York Times.

Correspondents say that if the allegations were proven, Pakistan could lose American aid worth three billion dollars.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service