Friday, July 28 2006 10:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The White House sees no ambiguity in its entering into a nuclear deal with India and its policy of curbing the nuclear designs of Iran and North Korea.

"We're pursuing two different things here and it doesn't have anything to do with the nuclearisation of Iran or anything else," White House spokesman Tony Snow told sources.

The agreement with India is a civil nuclear programme, which US does not want to be used for military purposes. To that end, there are safeguards built in with considerable sentiment on Capitol Hill seat of US Congress to make sure that those are firm safeguards, he said.

US also looks at the civil nuclear agreement as an important part of efforts to find alternative energy sources, Snow said noting that the US President had a number of times, stressed the need to get rid of our addiction to oil in view of escalating oil prices.

Part of what we're seeing, in terms of the global oil markets, is a result of rapidly growing economies in places like India and China where you've got two billion people. When you have growing economies, they're going to have a pretty good appetite for energy, he said.

"US has been encouraging them to take a look at sources other than oil, including nuclear energy, and the President also has been trying to make that case at home, because it is important in the long run, if people want to wean themselves from that dependence on oil, one has got to look for other sources," Snow said.