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India not to sign CTBT under pressure: Vajpayee

NEW DELHI: India will not sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) under pressure, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said on Saturday.

"We will not be signing CTBT under pressure," Vajpayee said, addressing a delgation of members of the Arya Samaj, a social reformist organisation.

Vajpayee's comments come about two weeks before U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit to India.

Clinton is scheduled to visit India and Bangladesh during the week of March 20, but has not decided whether he will stop in Pakistan.

The United States, which has led Western efforts to draw India and its nuclear-capable arch-foe Pakistan into the global regime for arms control, is urging New Delhi to sign the CTBT.

India has said it is willing to sign the treaty once it has built a domestic consensus on the pact.

Since its nuclear explosions in May 1998, scientists and military analysts have said India does not need any more tests and joining the test ban regime would not hurt the country's interests.-Reuters