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No time-frame for lifting sanctions on India

India on Monday said that the US has not given a clear indication of any time-frame for lifting of unilateral sanctions imposed on this country after the 1998 Pokhran nuclear test.

''There is no clear indication of any time-frame on how they are actually going to lift these sanctions,'' an external affairs ministry spokesperson told reporters.

She was asked about a Washington Post report that the Bush administration will start working with Congress next month to lift sanctions against India, paving the way for greater military planning, joint operations and eventual sharing of weapons technology with New Delhi.

State Department officials have held preliminary talks with Congress and will move forward "at a speed visible to the naked eye" in easing sanctions once Congress returns from summer recess, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told the Post.

The spokesperson said during the recent visits of Armitage and Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina B Rocca they had conveyed to New Delhi that the Bush Administration was consulting the US Congress on this issue.

She said: "India has always maintained that the sanctions were unjustified and counter-productive in creation of a positive atmosphere and for laying the foundation of a broad-based, forward-looking relationship between India and the US. The US is well informed about it."

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