Islamabad, Feb 01: Pakistan has refuted a report claiming that a Chinese naval base was being built at Gwadar and said that the new port was being developed for commercial applications only. ''The news report in this regard is not correct,'' The Daily Times today quoted a foreign office spokesman as saying and added it was ''way off the mark and tendentious.''

''It (Gwadar) is being developed as a commercial port which will increase Pakistan's trade relations with West Asia, Central Asia and Europe and provide a two-way access to commercial traffic from Central Asian countries to transform Pakistan into the region's commercial hub,'' he said.
Gwadar, a port on the Makran coast of Baluchistan, about 500 km west of Karachi was handed over to Sultan of Muscat, by the Khan of Kalat in the last half of the 18th century and was returned to Pakistani sovereignty in 1958.

Pakistan has been seeking to develop it as its second deep-water port, with Chinese help, in order to take the strain off Karachi.

Praising China for its valuable assistance in developing the port, the spokesman said it was ''a further manifestation of fruitful economic cooperation between the two countries.''

Bureau Report