File photo from Pakistan's Baluchistan province, where Thursday's test was conducted

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Pakistani Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan on Friday declined to rule out further nuclear tests, and the U.N. Security Council late Thursday failed to come up with a statement deploring Pakistan's detonation of five nuclear bombs on Thursday.

Asked in an interview with U.S. network ABC's "Nightline" program whether Pakistan planned further tests, as some U.S. intelligence reports have indicated, Khan said in an interview broadcast from Islamabad, "One cannot rule it out. The prime minister has not said anything in his speech in this regard."

Pakistani Finance Minister Sartaj Aziz told Reuters Television earlier that his country had no further nuclear tests scheduled.

Khan said his country was forced into conducting the nuclear tests on Thursday by India's earlier tests, and chided the international community for not doing more to stop India's development of nuclear weapons since 1974, when it launched its nuclear program.

"We were forced into this situation. Unfortunately our friends did not stand by us," Khan told ABC. "The action they are taking now should have been taken long ago by all concerned parties."

Pakistanis in Islamabad celebrate Thursday's testing

Despite worldwide condemnation, Khan cited strong public support for the nuclear tests and predicted Pakistan would weather the economic sanctions imposed by Washington and emerge stronger. The United States and Japan have so far announced sanctions against Pakistan.

"These sanctions we'll survive. The people are there, they have the determination, the will," he said.

"God willing we'll emerge much, much stronger," he said. U.S. officials, meanwhile, said Thursday that Pakistan is "technically capable" of conducting another nuclear test "at any time."

Officials, who asked not to be named, said U.S. spy satellites are monitoring a second location where it's believed a nuclear device has been placed in an underground shaft and encased in concrete.

U.S. officials told CNN that there are "some indications" that Pakistan may be planning a second test -- but said they were not "predicting" a test.

At Thursday's Pentagon briefing, spokesman Ken Bacon made a cryptic reference to the possibility Pakistan would test again.

"It's certainly one of the things we'll be looking at -- that we're looking at very closely. And we're looking at a number of possible sites to monitor what was going on there. But I can't get into any greater detail at this stage," said Bacon.

The Security Council was unable to come up with a statement Thursday because of China, which was the lone holdout that kept a declaration that deplored the tests from being passed.

After nearly five hours of consultations, the council adjourned its closed-door discussions late Thursday and agreed to meet again on Friday.

Diplomatic sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Chinese envoys told the council that they had no instructions from Beijing on whether to accept the draft text.

Council declarations must be agreed on unanimously by all 15 members. China, which is believed to have sold nuclear technology to Pakistan, pushed for strong language when the council deplored India's tests in a statement May 14.

Also Thursday, Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Pakistan and India to sign weapons treaties and promise not to use nuclear arms against each other. Pakistan conducted the tests after India exploded five nuclear tests earlier this month.

Annan also offered to help the two South Asian rivals resume a high-level dialogue, which broke down last year over Kashmir. India and Pakistan have fought three wars in the last 50 years, two of them over Kashmir, which is divided between them.

Following Pakistan's underground explosions, Bill Richardson, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Washington would seek "appropriate" action in the council to prevent a nuclear arms race in the volatile region.

"We think that the international community ... should join together to stop this arms race," he said.

Clinton responds to Pakistan's testing Thursday

President Bill Clinton on Thursday took the lead and swiftly punished Pakistan by imposing broad economic sanctions and urged India and Pakistan to halt further testing to avert a dangerous arms race.

Pakistan declared a state of emergency after the tests, suspending the fundamental rights of citizens in an apparent move to cope with problems which sanctions would bring.

Japan's sanctions against Pakistan include suspension of new yen loans worth about 60 billion yen ($431 million) and of aid grants worth six billion yen ($43.1 million).

"It is totally unforgivable," Japanese government spokesman Kanezo Muraoka said of the tests.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, anticipating strong economic sanctions, warned the Pakistanis of the hardships they would face and advised belt-tightening.

The Bomb:Who has it? Who wants it? A cold war of words:Gauging the rhetoric exchanged between India, Pakistan TIME:Why the CIA didn't have a clue... Treaty Text: Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Background Special:India and Pakistan -- Fifty years of independence Message Board:Will India's testing prompt new arms race? Related Site: Federation of American Scientists Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

He announced he would give up his luxurious office and other government departments will vacate and sell huge buildings to cut costs. He said the government will also step up pressure for recovery of over-due loans and collection of taxes.

Sharif said Islamabad had to carry out its own nuclear tests because the world community had not done enough to make India realize its "mistake" in conducting tests.

Pakistan has so far refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty until India does the same.

To avoid a rush on foreign currency deposits, Islamabad moved swiftly on Friday to freeze private foreign currency accounts and suspended licenses of foreign exchange dealers.

Bankers said the impact of these measures would be known later in the day when government officials were available to explain the reasons and the ramifications of these decisions.

Aziz said these steps did not violate its agreements with the International Monetary Fund with has agreed to give Pakistan a $1.56 billion medium-term loan facility.

However, he did say the agreement with the IMF "will have to be on hold for a while."

In India, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was to address parliament during the day, closing a three-day heated debate on India's own series of five underground tests which stunned the world earlier this month.

But after Thursday's news that Islamabad had matched New Delhi blast-for-blast, he raised doubt about his pledge to adopt a new moratorium on testing.

"A new situation has been created and it will be taken into account in formulating our policy," he told reporters.

Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre and Reuters contributed to this report.