The web site described Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz as "overwhelmed" by the success of the test. It said Aziz congratulated the engineers, scientists and technical staff who were present at the launching.

Aziz pledged that Pakistan would continue to retain its deterrent capability to guarantee peace in the South Asian region. He said that the defense of the country was on topmost priority of the government, fully endorsed by the entire nation.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf sent a special message to congratulate the missile test team and said the entire nation was proud of their brilliant performance, the report said.

A Pakistani military spokesman said in a statement that the test was carried out to confirm the missile's ability fulfill additional technical parameters beyond those achieved in the Shaheen II's last test 14 months ago in March 2005.

The Shaheen II is a two-stage solid fuel missile which can carry nuclear and conventional warheads with "high accuracy."

The test came two days after Pakistan and India concluded a three-day session of negotiations in the Pakistani capital Islamabad to discuss confidence-building measures between them in their nuclear program and other areas. However, the two nations failed to reach the agreement they had sought on reducing the risk of accidental or unauthorized use of nuclear weapons.

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