It was the third test of the "Ghaznavi" or Hatf-III missile, a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 290km, the military announced in a statement.

Most of this year's tests have been seen as aimed at placating domestic anxieties that Pakistan may be pressured to dismantle its nuclear program after it emerged its key nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had been involved in proliferation, and because of peace moves with India.

"It is aimed at reassuring hawks in Pakistan that the Musharraf government has no plan to freeze the country's nuclear programme," military analyst, retired general Talat Masood, told AFP.

Pakistan informed its neighbours ahead of the test, the military said.

"The test was part of a series of tests planned... in order to verify certain parameters and to further refine different subsystems of the missile," the military's Inter Services Public Relations said in a statement.

"The flight data collected indicates that all the design parameters have been successfully validated."

The test comes one week after the prime ministers of rival neighbours India and Pakistan met for the first time, in the middle of a step-by-step peace process two years after they nearly went to war.

"Both India and Pakistan are trying peace moves along with their military buildup," Masood said.

"This parallel and contradictory development will continue for sometime until the peace process comes to a satisfactory conclusion."

The Pakistani military said more tests were planned.

"Pakistan's nuclear and missile program will maintain the pace of development and tests will continue to be conducted as per technical needs," the statement said.

Last month India tested the naval version of its Prithvi-III nuclear-capable ballistic missile, which has a range of up to 300km.

It followed Pakistan's test of the intermediate range Ghauri missile, capable to carrying nuclear warheads deep inside India.

The Ghauri or Hatf V, with a range of 1,500km, was test-fired on October 12, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of President General Pervez Musharraf's assumption of power in a bloodless military coup in 1999.

Pakistan was plunged into a nuclear proliferation scandal when Khan, the father of its nuclear program, confessed in February to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

"The significance of the latest test is that it signals (to India) that we are not lagging behind as far as the country's defence is concerned," Masood said.