BY : JOHN LEICESTER for Associated Press



Pakistan is trying to buy French missiles and radar for a jet fighter it is developing with China, a defense journal said Thursday, and experts warned that such a deal risked the technology falling into Chinese hands despite a European arms embargo on China.

Pakistan is talking to France about obtaining air-to-air missiles from the MBDA company and radars from Thales for its version of the JF-17 warplane, Jane's Defense Weekly said in a report posted on its Internet site.

Those missiles and similar radars also equip Taiwan's French-built Mirage fighters, and the island's weapons systems could be compromised if Pakistan transferred the technology to China, Jane's said.

The journal cited unidentified Russian and Chinese sources as saying the French sale to Pakistan was "likely" to go ahead.

A spokesman for MBDA initially said it was bidding to supply systems for the Pakistani jet, but later retracted his statement, saying he had been misinformed. Thales declined to comment, and French government officials would not discuss whether a deal was in the works.

China regards U.S.-allied Taiwan as part of its territory, although the island has ruled itself since breaking away in 1949 as communist forces won control of the mainland. Their tense relationship is one of the world's most closely watched potential sources of conflict.

Alexander Neill, head of the Asia program at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in England, said he anticipated a "quite vicious" reaction from the United States if France proceeded with the reported sale.

He said there were "valid" concerns that China could get its hands on the technology, because "Pakistan is building a very solid relationship with China."

A look at the French technology could allow Chinese engineers to counter it, possibly affecting the delicate military balance between China and Taiwan, said Paul Smyth, head of aerospace studies at the institute.

"There's no doubt that having access to that would be significant," he said.

Pakistan reportedly let Chinese engineers look at U.S. military equipment in the past, and experts said permitting examination of the French technology would circumvent a European Union ban on arms sales to China in place since the Chinese army crushed democracy protests in 1989.

The experts said the embargo has become increasingly porous and France has lobbied for it to be lifted.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, elected in May, has yet to say where he stands on the issue but may do so when he visits China later this year, his spokesman David Martinon said Thursday.