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Tests took US by surprise

India has managed to keep under wraps its decision to undertake nuclear tests -- a fact grudgingly acknowledged by US officials.

Asked whether the US had any foreknowledge that the Indians were going to make these tests because Indian Foreign Secretary K Raghunath was in Washington last week, State Department spokesman James Rubin said on Monday, ''I don't believe that any of our officials knew for sure that there was going to be such an announcement (by India about the nuclear tests).''

He, however, said his understanding was that in the meetings with Raghunath, ''We strongly urged them (India) not to respond to any of the steps that Pakistan had taken, including the testing of a medium-range missile.''

When asked, 'so this caught you unawares?', Rubin said, "Well, I didn't say that. I said that in those meetings, that there were not, to my knowledge, warnings that this was going to happen."

US intelligence agencies failed to detect any signs that India was preparing for the underground nuclear blasts and were embarrassed by New Delhi's extensive efforts to hide the tests, reported The Washington Times.

It quotes an administration official close to the Central Intelligence Agency as saying, ''We had zero warning.''

UNI

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