India tests nuclear capable missile

The homegrown missile, with a strike range of 700 kilometres (about 435 miles), was tested from a mobile launcher at Wheeler Island off the coast of eastern Orissa state at 10:10 am (0440 GMT), the official said.

The missile, one of the variants of the Agni (Fire) series, can carry a one-tonne payload.

Defence Ministry spokesman Amitabh Chakravarty in New Delhi described the test as "a perfect launch".

The test comes within weeks of talks between India and Pakistan on reducing the risk of nuclear confrontation.

In the June 19-20 talks in New Delhi, both sides agreed to set up a hotline to prevent nuclear confrontation, to continue a ban on nuclear tests and to conclude an agreement on informing each other in advance about impending missile tests.

It also comes just days after media reports in Pakistan quoted President Pervez Musharraf as saying that Islamabad would conduct an "important" missile test in two months' time.

Musharraf did not disclose details of the test but said domestic critics who believed that Pakistan had decided to roll back its nuclear and missile programmes were living in a "fool's paradise", the Dawn newspaper said Thursday.

The president did not specify whether the test would be of a nuclear-capable missile.

Meanwhile, Pakistan yesterday said it was not worried by India's test of a short-range nuclear capable missile as it was a "sovereign right" for any country to enhance its defence and military capability.

"Both countries (Pakistan and India) do the tests. It is a sovereign right of a country to take any measure for its defence," chairman of Senate foreign relations committee Mushahid Hussain told AFP.