President Clinton has reacted strongly to India's nuclear tests. They caught the US intelligence services completely by surprise and have thrown doubt over the president's planned trip to India later this year.
Speaking at a White House function dealing with crime, the president said he was deeply disturbed by India's announcement. He said its action flew in the face of "the firm international consensus" to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.
"I call on India to announce that it will conduct no further tests and that it will sign the Comprehensive Test Ban treaty now and without conditions," Mr Clinton said. "I also urge India's neighbours not to follow suit, not to follow down the path of a dangerous arms race."
Mr Clinton has recalled the US ambassador to India to Washington "for consultations", diplomatic code for extreme displeasure. But more importantly for India, he has also indicated that he intends to enforce the sanctions which are automatic under US law against countries which carry out nuclear tests.
No decision has been taken about cancelling the president's planned trip to India, but the White House press secretary, Mr Mike McCurry, said the tests would force a reassessment of the itinerary.
The tests are seen as throwing US policy on Asia into disarray and may have wrecked Washington's patient efforts to use political and economic dialogue to persuade India to abandon development of nuclear weapons. As recently as last week, US officials had cautioned India against such a step.
Likewise, the US ambassador to the UN. Mr Bill Richardson on a recent visit to India had urged its new government not to respond to missile tests by its neighbour Pakistan.
Under the US law imposing sanctions on countries carrying out nuclear tests - other than the five declared nuclear powers - Mr Clinton must act within 30 days. The US must cut off all military aid and sales to India, block all credit and loan guarantees by US agencies, oppose loans in international development banks and prohibit the export of technology that could be used for military purposes.
While the US does not give large amounts of economic aid to India directly - about $50 million last year - it can press other countries to block the massive amounts of loans and aid India receives from the World Bank. India is the World Bank's largest borrower with more than $40 billion in loans.
The US is India's biggest trading partner, with exchanges totalling $9 billion in 1995. US companies accounted for 42 per cent of all foreign investment in India in the first half of this decade, according to the Department of Commerce.
President Clinton is obliged to impose sanctions as soon as an infringement of the 1994 US Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act is certified. He can delay implementation for 30 days. This could allow India to announce that it will now sign the test ban treaty in response to Mr Clinton's appeal, but this is seen here as unlikely.
An investigation is already under way in Washington into why the US intelligence services had no advance knowledge whatever about the nuclear tests and left the Administration deeply embarrassed. It is pointed out that in 1995, when US spy satellites detected preparations at the Indian test site at Pokaran, US diplomats were able to persuade the then United Front coalition government from going ahead with nuclear tests.