India gas plans will help Tehran's nuclear aims - U.S. - Yahoo! News

India gas plans will help Tehran's nuclear aims - U.S. - Yahoo! News

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's plans to purchase gas and oil from
Iran' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Iran will help fund Tehran's development of nuclear weapons, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said on Thursday."
"There have been conversations ... and if that is allowed to go forward, in our judgement, this will contribute to development of nuclear weapons," he told reporters in Mumbai at the end of a three-day visit to India.
The United States and its allies say Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, and major world powers agreed last week on new U.N. sanctions for the Islamic nation because of its atomic programme.
Tehran has resisted global pressure to suspend uranium enrichment work, which can be used for bomb making as well as peaceful purposes, saying its programme is solely for peaceful electricity.
Bodman had said in New Delhi on Tuesday that U.S. relations with India would not be hurt by plans to build a $7 billion gas pipeline from Iran via neighbouring Pakistan.
But on Thursday he expressed Washington's displeasure with the dealings of nuclear-armed India with Tehran, a traditional friend of New Delhi.
"Of course," Bodman told reporters when asked if the pipeline would help to fund Iran's nuclear programme.
"I think it's against the interest of the United States. I think that supporting nuclear weapons is against the interest of the world," he said.
New Delhi hopes to sign the pipeline deal with Tehran by June. It is also negotiating for 5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas a year over a 25-year period from 2009.
India's biggest communist party, whose outside support is crucial to the federal government's survival, called on New Delhi to go ahead with the pipeline project.
"The gas pipeline project from Iran is of vital interest to India and its energy security," the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said in a statement.
"The well-known opposition of the U.S. is motivated by its partisan interests and its targeting of Iran."
Ties between Delhi and Washington have improved over the past few years with U.S firms eager to do business with India's booming economy.
Relations were boosted by a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement in 2005 that could let India buy U.S. nuclear reactors and fuel.
But the U.S. Congress attached several conditions to the deal that did not go down well with New Delhi and both sides have returned to negotiations.
(Additional reporting by Hiral Vora)