Bowing to intense pressure from the opposition, foreign minister Sartaj Aziz said the house had given ``enough guidelines'' to the government to take a final decision on the issue.

``We assure that we will take a final decision on the signing of CTBT keeping in mind our best national interest,'' Aziz said winding up the four-day discussion by the joint session of parliament on the CTBT issue today.

Parliament was later prorogued.

Aziz, however, gave enough hints that Pakistan has more or less made up its mind to sign the treaty. The CTBT banned further tests but did not stop the country from carrying forward the nuclear programme with the help of `cold tests', he pointed out.

``Pakistan can come out of the treaty even after signing it if India carries outanother nuclear tests. The signing of the treaty is not going to affect the nuclear deterrent Pakistan has already achieved,'' he said.

Referring to demands by several members that the signing of CTBT be linked to the ``solution of Kashmir'', Aziz said Pakistan had already ``made it clear to the world powers'' that unless the issue was settled, peace could not return to South Asia.

The problem of Kashmir had become more serious after the nuclear tests in May this year, he said, adding the major world powers were ``more and more realising it''.

``We want to assure this house that we will sign CTBT only after we are assured that the unjustified sanctions -- both economic and non-economic -- will be removed,'' Aziz said.

The foreign minister pointed that most of the members, including those from the opposition parties before their walkout, were ``almost unanimous'' in their opposition to proliferation of nuclear weapons in the world, ``which is the aim of CTBT''.

The government, however, dropped itsplan to move a draft resolution in the joint session for securing an authorisation from parliament for signing the treaty as several members of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League also expressed their apprehensions over the signing of the CTBT by Pakistan -- an indication that the authorisation resolution may face difficulty on the floor of the house.

Earlier despite ``best efforts'' by the government, the opposition led by the Pakistan People's Party and the Awami National Party, which had walked out of the house on Tuesday, refused to come back to the house, saying the government was using parliament as a ``rubber stamp''.

The government also faced opposition within the ranks of the ruling party as several PML members spoke against the signing of CTBT demanding its linkages with other issues like the Kashmir problem and sanctions on Pakistan.

Ejazul Haq, vice president of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League and son of former military ruler, Zia-ul-Haq, said Pakistan should link the signing of CTBT withKashmir and said the government's negotiations with the United States on the CTBT issue were ``wrong''.

``We have relations with the United States since 1960 but still it has always imposed sanctions on us... never on India,'' Haq said, dismissing the argument that Pakistan's nuclear programmes could also be advanced through computer simulation. ``Why then did India not sign it in 1996?'' he asked.

India, he said, wanted Pakistan to sign the CTBT first so that it could be in ``a better negotiating position''. He urged the government not to rush through with the decision.