Saturday, July 29 2006 12:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Amidst reports that the US has imposed sanctions on two Indian firms for allegedly helping Iran's missile programme, a senior lawmaker, who is opposed to the nuclear deal with India, has demanded release of a State Department report detailing the curbs.

The administration earlier this week decided to impose sanctions on the two Indian entities, which have not been named so far, for the missile-related transactions with Iran, according to a media report. These were in addition to at least eight non-proliferation sanctions the US has filed against at least seven Indian companies or persons, including two sanctions in December 2005.

A State Department official had no comment when drawn attention to the report on the sanctioning of the Indian firms. "I don't have anything for you on that," he told sources.

A query left with Eugene Cottilli, Office of Congressional and Public Affairs in the Bureau of Industry and Security of the Department of Commerce, remained unanswered.

An official of the Indian embassy said that the mission had seen the news report. "We do not have any details."

Congressman Ed Markey, Co-chair of the Bipartisan Taskforce on non-proliferation, yesterday demanded the release of the State Department report on violations under the Iran-Syria Non-Proliferation Act, referring to reports that the two Indian firms have been sanctioned.

In a statement, the Democrat from Massachusetts alleged that the sanctioning of the two firms indicated that India was unable to fully police 'bad actors' in its jurisdiction from helping Iran.

"The Bush Administration has once again delayed, obfuscated, and misled this Congress by withholding information about these violations by Indian entities before we voted to grant historic nuclear cooperation with the Indian government," Markey alleged.

"As the world watches Hezbollah terrorists fire Iranian-supplied missiles into Israel each day, Congress needs to hold those that supplied those missiles, and those who are helping them, fully accountable for their actions. Congress should have known about these Indian non-proliferation violations before it paved the way for them to get even more nuclear materials without any controls," he said.

The Bush Administration, he said, "Is so busy giving away nuclear goodies to India, it has forgotten to ensure that a country that the President once called part of an 'Axis of Evil', Iran, isn't then able to turn around and use those weapons against us or our allies in the Middle East."