Claiming that India had anticipated such an event and had factored this element into its Defence strategy planning, Union Defence Minister George Fernandes told the Lok Sabha that it was unfortunate however that Pakistan had chosen to declare the tests India specific.

Giving the details available so far on the Pakistani tests, Fernandes said Pakistan conducted five nuclear tests in south-western Baluchistan on Thursday near the Chagai Hills.

Indian seismic observation centres had recorded evidence of an underground nuclear explosion at 1546 hours.

According to the Defence Minister, the observations recorded at multiple seismic centres indicate a likely yield of 10 kilo ton equivalent.

"If there are more tests than one, then the tests were simultaneous and successive tests were of smaller yield than the first one," he added.

Meanwhile,in a hard-hitting reaction to Pakistan's nuclear tests, the Left parties said the BJP government is shortsighted in escalating nuclear tensions with India's neighbours.

Emphasising that the Vajpayee government should refrain from arousing "national chauvinism" on a sensitive issue like nuclear weapons, the CPI(M) and the CPI demanded that India should not go in for weaponisation nor make or deploy nuclear weapons.

The government should "immediately declare no-first-use of nuclear weapons, step up efforts for universal nuclear disarmament and evolve a post-Pokhran test strategy with all the national political parties, the two parties said in a joint statement.

The Vajpayee government should also not move towards signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the parties demanded.

The Pak tests were not a vindication of the policy adopted by the BJP-led government as had been claimed by the Prime Minister, but were the inevitable confirmation of "how wrong has been the reversal of India'slong-standing nuclear policy," they said.

Accusing the Vajpayee government of undoing the progress in establishing good neighbourly relations with India's neighbours, the Left parties demanded that the government "immediately open a dialogue with the Pakistani government to defuse the tensions."

"The shortsighted step taken by the Vajpayee government and the reaction of the Pakistani government is leading to the step by step escalation in the nuclear arms race in the subcontinent."

Any move to whip up tensions will only hamper and retard the prospects of economic and social progress of both countries, the two parties said.