India insisted yesterday that it would conduct no more nuclear tests for the time being but indicated it was not prepared to meet demands that it sign a test-ban treaty without a global commitment to disarmament.
Seeking to deflect furious criticism of its blasts, New Delhi called for the establishment of a Nuclear Weapons Convention along the lines of existing agreements outlawing chemical and biological arms in "a global nondiscriminatory framework".
But with both India and Pakistan under heavy pressure, the proposal was dismissed as unrealistic and disingenuous in the face of insistence by the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France that under the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) only they may possess nuclear weapons.
It came as President Jacques Chirac of France called on the international community to "unite its efforts" to convince both countries to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Britain's Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook said that India should sign the CTBT without conditions, if it "wants to get back to centre stage in the international community." On Friday, Mr Cook joins fellow foreign ministers of the Big Five - who are also the permanent members of the UN Security Council - and a week later those of the G8, bringing in Italy, Japan, Germany and Canada, who want more active disarmament measures.
And in a novel move, diplomats said they may be also joined by South Africa, which secretly developed nuclear weapons during the apartheid years but later abandoned them to become a creative force for non-proliferation. India and Pakistan could be invited though it is not clear whether they will attend.
It is in this sort of forum that some arms control experts see a possible silver lining in the cloud of the Asian tests, with a challenge to the nuclear weapons states to live up to the disarmament responsibilities they have have ignored since the Cold War ended.
Mr Stephen Young, an analyst with the British-American Security Information Council, said: "For the Indians to call for a nuclear weapons convention without taking some real steps is meaningless and disingenuous because they know it will be rejected in favour of the NPT."
India has kept out of the NPT, which it says legitimises nuclear arms in the hands of a few nations but forces all others to renounce the option to build them. It has also refused to sign the CTBT. India complains, too, that neither treaty commits the five to disarm within a specified timeframe.
Mr Cook warned that India had put hurdles in the way of its hopes of joining the UN Security Council.