``It is upto the world whether they lift the sanctions. We should not pin high hopes,'' a dismayed Sharif told the government-controlled Pakistan television in an interview in New York.

``The more we expect from the international community the more we feel disappointed. Therefore, lesser the expectations, lesser the disillusionment,'' Sharif said, while coming to terms with the reality that Washington was not going to lift economic curbs despite Islamabad's announced willingness to sign the CTBT before 1999.

Sharif, who held a 45-minute meeting with President Clinton in New York on Monday last in an attempt to get the sanction lifted, said, ``Pakistan today is a nuclear weapon state and the need for the country to stand on its feet is morethan ever before. There can be no second opinion about it.''

Sharif's comments came in the wake of country's deteriorating economic conditions worsened by crippling sanctions and growing need for an economic bail out from the multilateral agencies to save the beleaguered economy from sinking.