Thursday, July 27 2006 18:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Rejecting the charge by Left allies that he has violated assurances made in Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today (July 27, 2006) made it clear that if the American legislation was 'inconsistent' with the July 18 Indo-US nuclear deal, that would be the 'determining factor' on what India will do.

"We have not violated any assurance that I had given to this august House. We have made very straight representations to the US Government," Singh said in Rajya Sabha hours after the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the deal while defeating amendments aimed at breaking it.

His response came after Sitaram Yechury of CPI (M) contended during Question Hour that the bill approved by the House of Repetitive stipulated that India has to negotiate its agreement with the IAEA before the final agreement for transfer of civilian technology was passed by them.

Yechury reminded Singh of his assurance that before voluntarily placing the civilian facilities under IAEA safeguards, Government will ensure that all restrictions on nuclear commerce imposed on India would be lifted.

Singh also said "Let it (legislative process) be completed. Once it is completed, we will then determine whether there are elements in it which go beyond what we have committed in July 18 statement."

"I cannot say that I can predict what the US legislative process (will) be. All I can say is, if US legislative process leads to an end product which is not consistent with what we have committed, that would be the determining factor of what we can do," he said.