India appeals for end to US nuclear curbs

On his first visit to Washington since taking up his post, Mukherjee said such limitations were among factors "that prevent India from realising its potential to contribute to international peace, stability and development."

In a speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, he said India and the United States have a "convergence of our security concerns," including "fundamentalist activism and terrorism" and weapons proliferation.

India is on the front line of this struggle and hence merits Washin-gton's assistance, Mukher-jee added.

Earlier, he met the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and will meet Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon.

Mukherjee is preparing the way for a White House visit next month by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

President George W Bush has greatly accelerated predecessor Bill Clinton's initiative to strengthen ties between the world's two biggest democracies, at odds through most of the Cold War and the years immediately afterward.

Economic and diplomatic relations have mushroomed.

But nuclear, military and other technology dealings have been more cautious, largely because of US concerns over India's status as an undeclared nuclear power that has refused to join most international non-proliferation regimes.

The administration has begun to cooperate on nuclear-related safety programmes with India.

Earlier Mukherjee said that the peace process with Pakistan was still not firmly in place despite positive results from negotiations launched one-and-a-half years ago by the nuclear rivals.

Mukherjee accused Pakistan of not doing enough to dismantle the "infrastructure for terrorism" in Pakistan-held Kashmir and challenged the neighbour to cooperate with India as it has done with the United States on the "war on terror."

The Himalayan state of Kashmir, divided between Pakistan and India and claimed by both in full, has caused two of three wars between the neighbours since their independence in 1947 from Britain.