Highly placed sources here said United States had not been able to confirm whether China had actually supported Pakistan in the manufacture of the M-II missile and wanted to believe that it was produced indigenously.

In any case, US did not want to impose one-sided restrictions on Pakistan since it believed that the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) could not be applied against Pakistan alone. The general opinion is that both India and Pakistan needs to make efforts to prevent a missile race.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan, reacting to Indian defence minister's statement that his country's missile Prithvi was capable of striking any part of Pakistan, said the Ghauri's range could be extended by launching it from ships. He claimed that the Ghauri had adequately augmented Pakistan'sdefence capabilities. Khan said that instead of issuing "threats", India should sit across the table and settle outstanding issues between both the countries. Sources also said that Pakistan had achieved the complete technology to manufacture cruise missile of medium range, capable of functioning through the guided missile system.

Meanwhile, the site of the test-firing of Ghauri has found a place in the pilgrimage map of the country. Thousands of people have begun thronging the area -- at the Kahuta Nuclear Research Laboratory -- about 40 km south of Rawalpindi, turning it into a carnival site.