LONDON, July 26: Pakistan has said it is ready to sign a treaty with India on non-use of nuclear weapons and admitted for the first time that Islamabad was collaborating with China in the defence field, particularly on hi-tech tanks.

The visiting Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan in an interview to the BBC World Service said Pakistan was ready to sign a treaty with India on non-use of nuclear weapons ``even though it would put Pakistan at a disadvantage''.Asked whether the defence collaboration with Beijing extended to the field of missile technology, as alleged by American officials, Ayub Khan was non-commital.

His remarks on collaboration with China on production of main battle tanks are significant in view of the reported failure of the Pakistani engineers to design an engine for the Al Khalid main battle tank.The tank was supposed to enter trial runs by late next year and the project is still on the design board.

Ayub Khan, who is to visit United States, said Pakistan did not have nuclear weapons. ``No we are against nuclear weapons,'' he said when asked if Pakistan possessed an atom bomb. The reports of China and Pakistan collaborating on the production of the main battle tanks come after British defence sources reported that Pakistan had cancelled its $ 620 million contract with Ukraine for supply of T-80 UD main battle tanks as first deliveries were found to be below specifications.

According to a defence weekly, the deal had come unstruck because Russians had refused to supply the state-of-the-art firing, guidance, night vision and navigation equipment for the tanks.

The weekly said so far, only 35 t-80 UD tanks had been delivered to Pakistan in two batches during March and May and were from Ukrainian army surplus stocks.

Regarding talks with India, Khan said his country intended to continue talks on bilateral issues including Kashmir, despite ``provocative actions by India.''He said, ``we are very realistic about the talks. From 1948 to 1971 we fought three wars unfortunately over Kashmir. So, we will continue to talk and talk.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.