Monday, May 9 2005 11:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Tokyo: Japan has refused visas to 11 Indian scientists since 1998 when the country conducted nuclear tests, sources in Tokyo said.

The visa rejections began in 1998 when India conducted underground nuclear test. In that year, the Japanese Foreign Ministry refused to issue a visa to an Indian scientist, the sources were quoted as saying by the Kyodo news agency.

There were three rejections in 2003, six in 2004 and one so far this year, it said.

Though the Ministry has declined to state reasons for the refusal, saying the issue is "a matter of national sovereignty", the sources maintained it is due to India's failure to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

A scientist at a Japanese research institution, who had invited an Indian scientist, quoted a Ministry official as saying the visa "will never be granted because the Indian scientist belongs to an institution that has some connection to nuclear weapons".

However, the research field of the Indian scientists are basic sciences, irrelevant to nuclear weapons development and those in Japan inviting them said the refusal was "unreasonable".

Nine of the 11 work for research institutes under India's Department of Atomic Energy and the remaining two are researchers at universities. They were supposed to join X-ray telescope development at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, study at graduate schools and Government sponsored students and attend international conferences, they said.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, an association of Physicists, is considering a protest to the Japanese Government and may block Japan from hosting international conferences backed by the Union.