Saturday, August 6 2005 10:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Asserting that the recent agreement with the United States (US) on nuclear issue would not affect India's strategic programme, National Security Adviser (NSA) M K Narayanan has said the pact had ensured dismantling of the nuclear restraint regime.

He maintained that the deterrence factor would not be affected by the agreement as under the pact it was for India to decide which reactors would be for military or civilian use.

"The strategic programme has been left untouched. What has really been done is to open a window of opportunity for widening our civilian nuclear infrastructure," Narayanan said in an interview to India Today while seeking to allay fears that the country's nuclear programme could have been compromised by the pact.

Noting that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had ensured that India gets what it had wanted, he said, "In a sense it (agreement) is the dismantling of the nuclear restraint regime. Everybody thinks that we are going in for another three bombs tomorrow. But the thrust of the Prime Minister was strongly on the energy sector. He was concerned that we require nuclear power to meet our energy shortage."

On the fears that the deal will cap India's nuclear weapons programme, the NSA said, "Deterrence will be affected only if we do not have the choice. Under the agreement, the choice is ours. That is the crux. It is for us to decide which of the reactors would be for military or civilian use. We will decide on the basis of what the future threat would be."

Narayanan said the choice of which reactors and how many will be made by Indian strategic community and scientists. "We will have enough fissile material available to meet our current and future needs."

Insisting that the Prime Minister had come back with an extremely fine deal, he said that the deal had been clinched even after the talks broke up the previous night over certain differences.

Elaborating, the NSA said the US was not willing to accept the idea of a 'phased programme' for demarcating India's civilian and military nuclear facilities or the word 'voluntary' to decide which facility India would bring under international safeguards.

"Nor were they very happy with the usage of the word 'reciprocal' to calibrate our steps," he said adding "In fact, the Prime Minister went to sleep that night a very disturbed person because he had put his credibility on the line."

He said Singh, however, was clear that nothing India would do would ever compromise any of the basic principles.