NEW DELHI, May 4: Indian MPs from both left and right united on Friday to denounce US legislators for what they said was an attempt to influence foreign policy through a controversial nuclear trade deal.

The lawmakers criticised letters written by Democratic and Republican legislators warning Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that New Delhi’s ties with Iran had significant potential to harm India-US relations and the landmark deal.

“We must send a very strong message to the US Senators and Congressmen that this will not prevail,” Yashwant Sinha, foreign minister in the previous Hindu nationalist-led government, told parliament. “We are not going to tolerate this,” he said.

The angry reactions from Mr Sinha and his colleagues in the upper house of parliament came after details of the latest letter from the congressmen were published in an Indian newspaper on Friday.

The letter --- signed by Democrat Tom Lantos, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, senior Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and others --- was the third, and strongest, in recent days expressing concern over relations between New Delhi and Tehran.—Reuters