The Hatf-IV (Shaheen-1) missile, which can hit targets up to 700 kilometers (437 miles) away, was launched from an undisclosed location, a military spokesman told AFP.

The test was Pakistan's sixth this year and the second in 10 days. Pakistan and India, who carried out tit-for-tat nuclear detonations in 1998, both conduct regular missile launches.

Foreign office spokesman Masood Khan said the test was not meant to send any message to India. The two countries are engaged in a peace dialogue aimed at resolving all issues including the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir.

"It is not a signal to India. Maintaining our nuclear deterrence is a national priority," Khan said. "Such tests are conducted periodically to validate technical parameters of our missile tests."

Pakistan had informed its neighbours before launching the indigenously developed missile, the military said, adding that the test was "successful".

The test was to validate "additional technical parameters" of the missile, which is already part of Pakistan's military inventory.

Pakistan tested a Ghaznavi short-range nuclear-capable missile on November

The military said the recent tests were "indicative of the government resolve to consolidate and strengthen Pakistan's nuclear deterrence capability."

Pakistan and India have a bitter history of confrontation, mainly over the Muslim-majority state of Kashmir, which is divided between the two and claimed by both in full.

Two of the countries' three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947 have been over Kashmir.

The military said President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had congratulated the scientists and engineers involved in the development of the missile on their "outstanding success".

The latest test does not contradict Pakistan's policy of rapprochement with India, Musharraf said.

"We know they are a nuclear power and they know we are. We inform each other when there are missile tests. There is no violation of our confidence-building measures," Musharraf, who is currently visiting France told reporters in Paris.

"Pakistan's policy is based on minimum defensive deterrence. When they (India) went nuclear, we went nuclear. When they started producing missiles, we did. We believe in maintaining our dignity and national sovereignty," he said.

Relations between Pakistan and India have improved in recent months in what Musharraf described as a "twin-track approach of confidence-building measures and dialogue."

"There is a thaw. I see light at the end of the tunnel," he said.

Khan insisted Islamabad did not want an open-ended arms race in South Asia in either the strategic or conventional spheres.

"We had a round of talks on nuclear CBMs (confidence building measures) and next week we will have another round of talks with our Indian counterparts on elaboration of nuclear and conventional CBMs.

"These CBMs are part of the overall rubric of peace and security which is expected to be discussed by the foreign secretaries of the two countries later this month."

Analysts said the tests were meant to show that Pakistan's missile and nuclear programme was alive and well and becoming more sophisticated.

"These are solid fuel missiles, which essentially means that Pakistan's short-range missile programme is acquiring a greater degree of sophistication," Riffat Hussain, who heads the strategic studies department at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University, told AFP.

"Both the range and the accuracy and the payload of these missiles are being refined and modified."

However Hussain said the tests were being conducted "more for technical rather than political reasons."

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