ISLAMABAD, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi hinted on Monday lift of restrictions on the country's nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has been under detention since January 2004.

    Khan, founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, was put under house arrest in 2004 after he confessed on state-run television that he had sold nuclear technology outside Pakistan.

    "I do not want to see his (Qadeer Khan) movements restricted. He is a Pakistani and a respected Pakistani," Qureshi told private Dawn TV channel.

    "He is a national hero and will not be handed over to IAEA in any situation," the foreign minister said. The IAEA refers to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog.

    Khan told Pakistan's Urdu newspaper "Nawa-i-Waqt" in a recent interview that he is under "illegal detention" and hoped that the country's new government will soon lift restrictions on his movement.

    On February 5, 2004, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced that he had pardoned Khan.