"We have successfully test fired the Shaheen 1," military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP.

The surface-to-surface ballistic missile, which can carry any type of warhead up to 700 kilometers (434 miles), was launched at 8:13 amfrom a secret location, Sultan said.

The Shaheen launch comes just five days after Pakistan test-fired its short-range Ghaznavi missile. Both are part of the locally-built Hatf series.

The tests are the first by Pakistan since peace moves, now faltering, began with India in April.

But the military insisted they were carried out purely for technical reasons.

"These tests do not have any connection" to relations with India, Sultan said.

"These tests are to meet the technical requirements, that is all. As far as I'm concerned they do not have any connection, they do not have any agenda."

Before both tests Pakistan notified neighbouring countries including India, its rival nuclear power.

"In a spirit of confidence building, Pakistan had given prior notification of the tests to its neighbours," a military statement said.

Since reappointing ambassadors and reviving a cross-border bus service, efforts by Islamabad and New Delhi to mend ties and revive dialogue after more than two years have stalled.

Hostile rhetoric has risen in recent weeks with each side accusing the other of damaging the peace process.

Analaysts linked the tests to Pakistan's growing frustration at India's superior military strength, in particular New Delhi's deal with Israel to purchase the Phalcon airborne early warning radar system.

Islamabad has been complaining increasingly to the United States of a "conventional military imbalance" with India, pointing in particular to the yet-to-be-signed Phalcon deal

"This is part of our effort to address the growing arms imbalance and indigenise our missile capability to bolster our security vis-a-vis India," analyst Riffat Hussain of Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University told AFP.

"The tests come on the heels of Indian efforts to acquire a wide range of anti-missile capability."

Ayesha Siddiqa, the Islamabad-based correspondent of Jane's Defence Weekly, said the tests were not "sabre-rattling."

"These are the tests that Pakistan has to do as long as territorial security is the primary thing.

"Given the conventional imbalance between India and Pakistan you need to invest in ballistic missile capability, and with nuclear weapons we need to develop our capabilities."

Sultan said more tests would be conducted in the near future "if required".

In the same month last year Pakistan conducted two tests of the Shaheen, also known as Hatf IV.

Pakistan and India both conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in May 1998, confirming their long-suspected possession of nuclear bombs.

They have fought three wars since Pakistan's creation in 1947 and last year were on the brink of a fourth war which many feared would turn into the world's first nuclear conflict.

Pakistan is estimated to have 30 to 50 nuclear warheads, according to the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in the United States, a fraction of India's estimated arsenal.

SPACE.WIRE