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Clinton hopes to restrain India's N-programme

NEW DELHI: US President Bill Clinton said on Tuesday he was optimistic about the possibility of restraining India's nuclear programme.

"I felt today that there was a possibility that we could reach more common ground on the issues of testing, on the production of fissile material and export controls, and restraint generally," Clinton told a joint news conference with Vajpayee.

Clinton spoke shortly after Vajpayee reiterated a firm commitment not to conduct further nuclear explosive tests, engage in a nuclear arms race or be the first to use nuclear weapons against any country.

India and archrival Pakistan conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests two years ago.

Clinton said he hoped India would ultimately sign and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, a global nuclear test ban treaty. He added he also would like the U.S. Senate, which rejected the treaty last year, to ratify it eventually.

"These are contentious issues, but I'm actually quite optimistic about our ability to make progress on them," Clinton said.

Vajpayee sees no threat of war

Moreover, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said on Tuesday there was no threat of war despite a dispute between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan over the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

"There is no threat of any war," he told reporters after meeting U.S. President Bill Clinton. "We do not think in terms of war and nobody should think in those terms in the subcontinent."

"I'm sure after visiting this part of the world the president will come to the conclusion that the situation is not so bad as it is made out to be," Vajpayee said.

He condemned the killing on Monday evening of 35 Sikhs, gunned down by suspected separatists in Jammu and Kashmir state.

"The nation and the entire civilised community is outraged at the premeditated act of barbarism and joins us in condemning this act," he said.

Leftists protest

About 2,000 members of India's four left-wing political parties took to the streets in New Delhi on Tuesday to protest against U.S. President Bill Clinton's four-day visit to the country.

"Clinton, go back," the protesters shouted as they marched towards the American Centre in the heart of the capital after Clinton began talks with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The marchers also burned an effigy of the U.S. president.

Hundreds of policemen in riot gear walked alongside the protesters.

Police set up barricades just short of the American Centre and used water cannons to prevent the demonstrators from breaking the cordon.

But a small group clashed with police as they made a bid to make their way to the centre.

"Say no to filthy imperialist culture," said a placard around a protester. "Killer of five million Iraqi children go back", read another.

Some three to four hundred people were later arrested for violating laws prohibiting mass public assemblies.

The protesters said they wanted to submit what they described as an "anti-imperialist charter" to the U.S. administration.

The charter urged the U.S. administration to immediately withdraw all economic sanctions against India.-Reuters