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'India ready for nuke bomb ban if world corrects discrimination'

India has said it supports the goal of banning nuclear testing if the world corrects the 'very substantial discrimination' in current nuclear agreements.

''India remains committed to a speedy process of nuclear disarmament leading to total and global elimination of nuclear weapons,'' the Indian mission to the United Nations said in a statement yesterday.

The statement said India would be prepared to consider accepting certain provisions of the 1996 Comprehensive (Nuclear) Test Ban Treaty depending on a number of reciprocal activities.

The statement did not specify those reciprocal activities but added the Indian government was willing to take part in negotiations for a treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

During an appearance today on CNN International's Q and A programme, India's Ambassador to the United States Naresh Chandra said the tests did not signal an attempt by India to develop nuclear weapons on a largescale.

''It became absolutely necessary for India to re-establish its capability and update that capability,'' Chandra said. ''These tests do not involve any infringement of any treaty or agreement that we have undertaken. We have broken no law.''

''India had to do something,'' he added. ''There is an element of discrimination, very substantial discrimination, in the present treaty arrangements.''

In New York, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the explosions violated an international understanding on halting such tests. He called for 'maximum restraint' by countries in the region.

Annan, who was returning from a visit to Africa, said the tests were inconsistent with the pattern that has been firmly endorsed by the international community.

''For quite some time, there has been a de facto moratorium on nuclear testing,'' Annan said in a statement.

UN spokesman Juan-Carlos Brandt said Annan called on all states for maximum restraint with a view to facilitating nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament.

In Paris, the foreign ministry voiced its concern over the tests and called on all states in the region to exercise extreme restraint. India should sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the government said.

In Vienna, a spokesman for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation said this was a sad development.

UNI

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