Wednesday, July 20 2005 17:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Pakistan has given a "constructive" and not an "overly problematic" response to the landmark Indo-US agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation, a senior US official has said.

The Bush administration has also got a "fairly positive" response from its allies overseas and Congressional leaders on the agreement, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, who has been a points man in the negotiations for the accord, said adding he also did not expect "a lot of Opposition in Europe".

US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice telephoned the Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf yesterday (July 19, 2005) to apprise him about the pact and his "reaction was constructive and not overly problematic," Burns said.

Making it clear that the agreement "stands on its own" and is not intended to be a counterweight to China, he said, "This is a significant point of departure for our foreign policy, not just in South Asia but worldwide".

Acting State Department Spokesman Adam Ereli echoed the same views and said the agreements on a broad range of issues are a recognition of India's important role and growing influence in the world and a further strengthening of a very close and growing strategic importance.

Maintaining that both India and Pakistan are important to the US, Burns said, "There are issues where US policy intersects, and there are issues where we can have individual relations with both countries".

Burns said European leaders had been told in recent weeks that a deal might be in the works. However, as the status on the agreement was not clear till the last minute, there was no time to brief foreign and Congressional officials in advance, he told The New York Times.

Burns said Rice and Stephen J Hadley, the National Security Adviser, had hammered out final details of the pact.

He said exempting India from the nonproliferation norms should not create problems for the administration's other efforts to try to get Iran and North Korea to adhere to Non-proliferation Treaty obligations. Both countries, he said, had signed the treaty, but then "cheated".

"Everybody knows, when you stop to think about it, that India is unique," Burns said adding, "India has also told the truth about what it's doing and is now willing to subject itself to intrusive inspections."