Pakistan's Ambassador in the United States Hussain Haqqani on Sunday termed a U.S. newspaper report, alleging Pakistani engineers have upgraded the range of U. S.-made Harpoon missile and test fired, baseless and incorrect, Xinhua reported.
The Pakistani private TV channel GEO News quoted Hussain Haqqani as saying that such news reports were designed to target and scuttle the U.S. Congress lawmaking process underway for sanctioning aid to Pakistan.
He urged upon the U.S. media to halt hurling blames on Pakistan and help it in war against terror, and said Pakistan would continue aligning with the U.S. in war against terrorism.
The Obama administration has accused Pakistan of illegally modifying U.S.-made missiles earlier given to Pakistan to expand its ability to hit land-based targets, which would constitute a threat to India, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.
Citing senior administration and Congressional officials, the newspaper said the charge came in late June through an unpublicized diplomatic protest to Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and other top Pakistani officials.
The accusation which comes at a particularly delicate time, when the administration is asking Congress to approve 7.5 billion U.S. dollars in aid to Pakistan over the next five years, triggered a new round of U.S.-Pakistan tensions, the report added.
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