NEW DELHI, Aug 3: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday that a milestone accord signed by India and the United States to access civilian nuclear technology was not a military alliance aimed against China. “I want to dispel illusions. We are not ganging up against any country, least of all China. This is not a military alliance or any alliance against any country,” Singh told parliament during a four-hour debate on his state visit last month to the US.

In the accord, Singh agreed to separate India’s civilian and military nuclear programmes, open its facilities to International Atomic Energy Agency scrutiny and work to prevent nuclear proliferation. Singh argued the deal only aims to boost India’s economic growth and added that it would not affect ties between Beijing and New Delhi.

President George W. Bush said during Singh’s visit to Washington that he would ask Congress and allied nations to lift sanctions preventing Indian access to civil nuclear technology as part of a new bilateral partnership. The United States had placed sanctions on India after its second round of nuclear tests in May 1998, but agreed after attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, to waive those and other sanctions in return for support in what the US calls a war on terrorism.

India is not a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). US law bars export of technology that could aid a nuclear programme of any country that has not signed the treaty. In Washington Singh said his country would agree to “assume the same responsibilities and practices” as other leading nations with advanced nuclear technology, and pledged to maintain India’s moratorium on nuclear testing.

The accord came after defence ministers from the two countries in June signed a 10-year agreement paving the way for joint weapons production, cooperation on missile defence and possible lifting of US export controls for sensitive military technologies.

Analysts see Washington’s move to boost relations with India as part of a strategy to counter the growing influence of China, India’s immediate neighbour. But Singh said on Wednesday: “We see new horizons in our relations with China. What we have done with the United States is not at the cost of China or any other country.”

Instead, “we have broken new grounds in promoting more closer relations with that great neighbour of ours,” he said, referring to a state visit to India by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in April.

Singh and the Chinese leader signed an agreement in April which set out a roadmap to settle a border dispute without the use of force. The two countries also set themselves a target of increasing bilateral trade to 20 billion dollars by 2008 from a current 14 billion dollars.

Singh said during his talks with the US leadership he underlined improving ties between the world’s two most populous nations. “I had made it quite clear that we want to remain engaged with China,” he said, adding that he sees “new horizons in our economic relations with that country.”

Singh, the architect of India’s economic reforms, insisted the accord aimed at increasing cooperation in civilian nuclear technology to meet India’s growing energy demands.

He said India’s relations with the United States are of great importance in helping his country move towards becoming the world’s second or third largest economy.

“Our engagement with the US is essential,” Singh said.—AFP