Thursday, March 23 2006 10:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Praising India as a 'proven non-proliferator', US President George W Bush has asserted that there are no 'double standards' in dealing with Iran and India on the issue of civilian nuclear energy.

"My attitude is that over 30 years they (India) have proven themselves to be a nonproliferator, that they're a transparent democracy; it's in our interest that they develop nuclear power for to help their economy grow they need power and they need energy to do so and they're willing to go under the safeguards of the IAEA, which is an international forum to make sure that there are certain safeguards", Bush said, " he said.

The Iranians are a nontransparent society. They're certainly not a democracy. They are sponsors of terrorism. They have joined the IAEA, and yet we caught them cheating. In other words, they weren't upholding the agreements, and they started to try to enrich uranium in order to develop a weapons programme. India is heading to the IAEA; the Iranians are ignoring IAEA", he said.

Bush was replying to a question on the 'double standards' at an interactive session at Wheeling, West Virginia. The President maintained that it is in America's interest if India uses nuclear power.

" It's in our interests that India use nuclear power to power their economic growth because, as I told you, there is a global connection between demand for fossil fuels elsewhere and price here. And so I went to India and I said, we ought to encourage you to use nuclear power", Bush said.