<B>PAKISTAN?S</B> government says it is questioning its leading nuclear scientists about the possibility they have independently collaborated with other countries? clandestine nuclear programs, but a top regional analyst charges that Islamabad is itself directly implicated.

The timing of the confirmation of the Pakistani probe, coming shortly after Col. Muammar Gadaffi announced that Libya was cooperating with the US in dismantling its weapons of mass destruction programs, prompted commentators in India to speculate that its neighbor and arch-rival may have something to hide in the case of Libya as well.

Investigations into possible nuclear technology transfers from Pakistan to Iran showed that ?certain individuals might have been motivated by personal ambition or greed?, the Pakistani government said yesterday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told a news briefing that Pakistan was determined to get to the bottom of allegations that technology may have been transferred from Pakistan to Iran.

?If there are any individuals who are found involved in transfers of any sort, action would be taken against them,? he said. ?Nobody is above the law.

?There are indications that certain individuals might have been motivated by personal ambition or greed. But we have not made a final determination,? he said.

Khan said Pakistan began questioning some of its nuclear scientists five to six weeks ago after being approached by the UN?s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and having received information from the Iranian government that ?pointed to certain individuals?.

However he stressed that the government itself had never been involved in nuclear proliferation. ?It takes its responsibility as a nuclear weapons state very seriously,? he said.

?The government of Pakistan has not authorised or initiated any transfers of sensitive nuclear technology or information to other countries,? he said. ?This is out of the question.?

On Monday, Islamabad said Abdul Qadeer Khan, the controversial ?father of Pakistan?s atom bomb?, was being questioned in connection with ?debriefings? of several scientists working at his Khan Research Laboratories, a uranium enrichment plant near Islamabad.

The admission came after diplomats said last month that the IAEA was probing a possible link between Iran and Pakistan following Tehran?s acknowledgement that it had used centrifuge designs that appeared identical to ones used in Islamabad?s quest for the bomb.

On Sunday, Islamabad said Yasin Chohan, one of three Khan Laboratories scientists detained earlier in the month, had been allowed home after a ?personnel dependability and debriefing session?. It said two others, Mohammad Farooq, and another identified only as Saeed, were ?still undergoing debriefing?.

On Monday, Bush administration officials said Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had assured Washington that his government had not ? at least ?in the present time? ? provided any nuclear secrets to countries like Iran and North Korea.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan called Musharraf?s personal assurances ?important? and added that close cooperation between the United States and Pakistan in the war on terrorism would continue ? despite any transfers of nuclear technology and know-how that might have taken place in the past.

David Brunnstrom