国际英语新闻：Pakistan, India to exchange nuclear data

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan and India will exchange lists of nuclear installations and facilities on Saturday in spite of tension over the 2008 Mumbai attacks that has disrupted the dialogue process between the two countries.

The two countries exchange the list of nuclear sites on the first day of every new year under an agreement signed in 1988 and came into force in January 1991.

The first exchange took place on Jan 1, 1992, under the Agreement on Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between Pakistan and India.

The lists will be handed over to officers of the Pakistani and Indian high commissions in Islamabad and New Delhi.

This will be the 20th consecutive list exchange between the two countries.

Pakistan and India conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in 1998. Both countries are de-facto nuclear-weapon powers.

India conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, followed by five more in 1998. Pakistan conducted its six nuclear tests in 1998.

Neither India nor Pakistan is a signatory to the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT). India considers the NPT discriminatory, while Pakistan has indicated that it won't join the international agreement till its neighbor does so.

Neither of the two have signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

In 2004 they launched a peace process, but that is now on hold following the Mumbai attacks, with New Delhi pressuring Islamabad to do more to punish those responsible for the carnage and to crack down on anti-India groups.