Israel, which successfully destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor, also considered a pre-emptive strike to destroy Pakistan's nuclear facilities, according to State Department papers released by the National Security Archive, a private research agency in the US.

Newly declassified papers obtained by the Archive shows that at a Friday morning session on September 14, 1979 of the US General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament, Assistant Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Charles Van Doren discussed 'apparent Israeli consideration of military action against Pakistan'.

The United States itself, he said, had not discussed (with Israel) 'preemption plans'.

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The declassified paper provides no further details but it is known that A Q Khan, father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb, and others had described Pakistan's nuclear bomb as an 'Islamic bomb' and rich Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and Libya reportedly provided financing while China provided technical aid, nuclear materials and a design for the bomb.

Blueprints stolen by Khan from the Netherlands enabled Pakistan to build centrifuges to refine uranium to bomb-grade.