NEW DELHI: India believes that American endorsement of its candidature for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council is a "difficult call" given that the G-4 resolution on expansion of the body will be the centre of attention in New York almost at the same time Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets President George W. Bush in Washington on July 18.

It is up to the United States to announce support for India's case for a permanent seat, South Block sources said.

Admitting that there were differences with the U.S. over the G-4 resolution, now being discussed in the General Assembly, the sources said these related to the extent of democratisation of the Security Council and the procedure to be followed for its expansion.

India had invested a lot of political capital in the G-4 reform effort and was committed to pushing ahead with the initiative. The U.S. conceded that India must find greater representation in global councils but remained silent on a permanent seat for it.

The sources said India was not going to present to the U. S. a list of demands but was hopeful of deepening relationship in diverse fields.

"We are not approaching the [Prime Minister's] visit in this spirit," they said to a question whether New Delhi was looking to American support for relaxing the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) guidelines, which prohibit civilian nuclear cooperation with India. "We are not looking at anything as specific as fuel for [the] Tarapur [plant]."

The fact that the U.S. and the European Union (which now formally invited India to join the International Thermonuclear Energy Reactor project) were willing to talk about civilian nuclear energy cooperation was an achievement in itself.

Asked about the "pressure" being mounted by the U.S. to scuttle the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, the sources said New Delhi made no secret of the fact that its relationship with Teheran was important.

Iran, India's gateway to Afghanistan

Apart from being an important energy source, Iran was India's gateway to Afghanistan as Pakistan still insisted on denying transit facilities to Indian goods. Both India and Iran had worked together to stabilise the situation in Afghanistan.

The sources said Dr. Singh's visit to Washington would be an "important foreign policy event." It would reflect the "real changes" taking place in India's relationship with the U.S. and should be seen as part of an ongoing process of engagement.

Advancing trade and investment relations would be another focus area. For, both sides felt that economic ties had not kept pace with the improvement in political relations. This, the sources stated, had to be addressed by both countries. A meeting of key Indian and American business leaders would take place during the Prime Minister's trip.

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