"We are protesting against it," Kasuri said during a debate in the senate.

Washington decided to impose sanctions on Pakistan's A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) and North Korea on March 24, following months of allegations from unnamed US officials that Islamabad had supplied Pyongyang with nuclear technology in exchange for missiles.

US officials have not publicly linked the two countries, but a statement from Washington said KRL had contributed to an unnamed foreign proliferator's weapons of mass destruction program, and that a North Korean firm had exported missiles.

The sanctions ban trade with US firms for two years.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to inform him of the KRL ban, Kasuri said.

Musharraf conveyed Islamabad's "resent" of the ban, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told The Dawn daily.

"The matter has been taken up with the US and you will hear good news soon," Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal told reporters after the senate debate, adding that he "condemned" the sanctions.

"Steps will be taken. The defence of Pakistan is in very safe hands."

Foreign Minister Kasuri insisted that the alleged transfer of nuclear technology did not occur under the current government or the former military regime under Musharrraf, but did not rule out past transfers.

"We have told the US that this (transfer of technology) did not happen during the five-month tenure of the (Prime Minister Zafarullah) Jamali government, nor did it happen during the previous government," he said.

International newspapers however have quoted US intelligence officials describing alleged missile exports from North Korea to Pakistan as recently as last month.

Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported Wednesday that US satellites and spy networks detected North Korean exports of some 10 Scud missiles to Pakistan in March.

An unnamed US security official told the Japanese paper that Scud B missiles with a range of 300 kilometres (185 miles) were loaded on to a Pakistan-flagged cargo ship at a North Korean port in mid-March.

The vessel entered Pakistani territory in late March, it said.

The New York Times reported last year that a Pakistani cargo plane picked up missile parts in North Korea in July.

Pakistan has vigorously denied the reports.

"We are a responsible country...We do not indulge in proliferation," Kasuri repeated Wednesday, saying Pakistan's missile and nuclear programs were purely indigenous.

"We are not dependent on outsiders," he added.

Pakistani officials initially brushed off the sanctions as having little impact because KRL did not engage in foreign trade.

Kasuri on Wednesday conceded it could have an impact, saying the "flow of technical information may be affected."

SPACE.WIRE