Friday, July 28 2006 11:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The Bush administration yesterday (July 27, 2006) said that the Indo-US nuclear deal was completely civilian in nature and could not be equated with the Iran and North Korea nuclear issues.

"The civilian nuclear cooperation with India will remain civilian and Washington has made it known that it did not want activities to be used for military purposes," White House spokesperson Tony Snow said.

"We're pursuing two different things here what we're talking about with India is a civil nuclear programme. And there are safeguards built in," he said.

"And, obviously, you know that there will be considerable sentiment on Capitol Hill to make sure that those are firm safeguards," Snow said in response to a question on the ambiguity of US policy.

On the Indo-US nuclear deal, he said, "It actually fits into something entirely different, and it doesn't have to do with the nuclearisation of Iran or anything else. But the president has made the point a number of times and we see it now in escalating oil prices that we need to get rid of our addiction to oil."

"And part of what we're seeing in terms of the global oil markets is as a result of rapidly growing economies in places like India and China: they're going to have a pretty good appetite for energy. And we have been encouraging them to take a look at sources other than oil, including nuclear energy," he said.