"That is tantamount to admitting that we cannot be trusted in our own house," he told a breakfast meeting of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

Asked whether he would allow inspectors from the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect the country's nuclear facilities, Musharraf said: "Why?"

"Our nuclear programme is for the protection of the people of Pakistan," he said.

"You have to understand that this is a very sensitive issue for us.

"And our people are sensitive to outsiders coming into our country asking questions. It's as though we cannot be trusted," he said.

"If the IAEA has questions about our nuclear programme then let them ask us. We have nothing to hide.

"We will give them all the information they want but we will not allow their inspectors into our country to question our officials or inspect our facilities.

"If we did that it would be admitting that we can't be trusted."

He said the same also applies to the country's disgraced chief nuclear scientist Adbul Qadeer Khan.

Pakistan admitted recently that Khan, often described as the father of Pakistan's nuclear programme, had supplied Iran with centrifuges, used to enrich uranium for atomic warheads, but it said the government was not involved and has refused to give him up for questioning by other countries.

"You have to understand that Khan is a national hero in our country.

"We will question him. No one should doubt our intention to give all the facts on this matter," Musharraf said.

The IAEA is conducting a probe into Iran's suspect nuclear programme and wants to take so-called "environmental samples" from Pakistan to compare them with those found in Iran.

IAEA inspectors have found traces of highly-enriched uranium inside Iran, leading to suspicions that Iran has been trying to produce nuclear bombs and not just atomic energy as it insists.

But Tehran maintains the traces found their way into the country on equipment bought from Khan's black market network.

Pakistan has supplied results from sampling it has conducted itself, but has not allowed IAEA inspectors into the country to do their own sampling.

Musharraf said late last month that Pakistan would send "outdated" centrifuge parts for tests by the UN's atomic agency to help establish whether Tehran has been secretly developing nuclear weapons.

Khan confessed in February 2004 to leaking secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya after a government probe into nuclear proliferation.

Khan was later pardoned by Musharraf but has been living under virtual house arrest in Islamabad.

The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, in a visit to Pakistan last month said the US wanted to "crush the tentacles" of the black market run by Khan.

"It is a network that we want to make certain that its tentacles are broken up as well," Rice told a press conference after talks with the Pakistani leaders.

She said the United States has had cooperation from Pakistan to try to ensure the network is broken up and to get as much information as possible.

Musharraf was winding up a three day state visit to the Philippines, the first ever by a Pakistani head of state, where he and President Gloria Arroyo discussed a number of issues of mutual interest including terrorism, trade and commerce.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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