India needs a credible nuclear deterrence to counter Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's threat of nuclear strikes, eminent nuclear scientist and Rajya Sabha member Raja Ramanna said on Saturday.

''Pakistani military ruler Gen Musharraf has threatened India with nuclear strikes and we need nuclear deterrence to prevent military dictators, all dictators, from doing whatever they feel like,'' Dr Ramanna, former minister of state for defence, said at a lecture in New Delhi on 'future of nuclear power'. ''We have developed nuclear weapons not for offensive purposes but only for defence, and we have conveyed it to the world that we will not be the first one to use them against anyone,'' the scientist, who was a key figure when India carried out its first nuclear tests in 1974, said at the lecture organised by IGNOU.

''World powers never tire of advising India to give up its nuclear option but they never do so themselves. In fact, President (George) Bush has said that the US might have to resume nuclear tests,'' Dr Ramanna, former chairman of the atomic energy commission, said. Bureau Report