NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday defended India's vote against Iran in the International Atomic Energy Agency stating it took a stand based on independent assessment and national interest.

The party's defence came as more parties, the Janata Dal (Secular), the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and CPI (M-L) New Democracy joined the protests and condemned the move.

Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said India had taken a constructive and positive position at the IAEA and that there was no departure from the country's fundamental and stated position.

He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had made it clear that India was principally opposed to referring Iran to the United Nations Security Council and insisted on more time for negotiations within the purview of IAEA.

``We are satisfied that India has engaged proactively with the EU 3 (France, United Kingdom and Germany) and made them aware of our concerns. Indian's concerns were brought on board and the resolution was amended... '' Mr. Sharma said.

He said linking the voting to relations with the United States was not correct. ``We reject in totality this perception that India's role was influenced by extraneous reasons'', he said.

As for the BJP's charge against the Government, Mr. Sharma said the Congress did not need prescriptions from anyone on national interest.

JD (S) spokesman Danish Ali said the party condemned the ``shameful act'' of the Manmohan Singh Government.

He said the party's national executive that meets here on Wednesday would adopt a resolution against it.

CPI (M-L) New Democracy general secretary Yatendra Kumar said that by voting against Iran, the Government supported by the Left, had made India a party to the U.S. ``aggressive designs against Third World countries particularly Middle East countries... ''

CPI (ML) general secretary Kanu Sanyal said the Government's act was ``not only shameful but also a deep rooted conspiracy and crime against our people and the country."

CPI (ML) Liberation general secretary, Dipankar Bhattacharya said the move was not sudden and the incident made it clear that the UPA Government had ``tied itself completely to the strategic interests of the American foreign policy and had sacrificed independent foreign policy making as a sovereign state."

The party has called for a protest on Thursday.

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