Singh says India won't be pressured into voting against Iran at IAEA

"We will do what is right for the country. India's national interest is the prime concern whether it is domestic or foreign policy," Singh told reporters in New Delhi, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported.

"We will not come under pressure. We will do the right thing for the country. Our prime concern is to protect and safeguard India's enlightened national interest," the premier said.

US ambassador David Mulford warned last week that a historic deal to provide India with American nuclear technology might fall through unless it votes against Iran at the February 2-3 meeting of the IAEA.

Many western countries, led by the United States, want to refer Iran to the UN Security Council amid concerns over its nuclear program. These were heightened earlier this month when Tehran announced it was suspending a voluntary moratorium and resuming sensitive nuclear research work.

Western countries suspect Iran wants to build nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear power program, a charge Tehran denies.

Mulford said a prospective deal for the United States to transfer civilian nuclear technology to India would "die" in the US Congress if India voted against a resolution on Iran.

If India decides not to back the resolution, "the effect on members of the US Congress with regard to (India-US) civil nuclear initiative will be devastating," Mulford told PTI in an interview.

India's communists, who lend crucial outside support to Singh's minority government, have asked the government to abstain from the vote if the IAEA meeting does not reach a consensus.

Senior communist leaders had also urged the government to seek Mulford's recall. But Singh made it clear he would not follow this course of action.

"To err is human," the United News of India news agency quoted him as saying in reference to Mulford.

During the IAEA meeting in Vienna in September, India voted with the United States, Britain, France and Germany to chide Iran for its nuclear programmes.

Last week the Indian foreign ministry said it supports a Russian proposal which provides for Tehran to enrich uranium into fuel outside Iran as a way of keeping it from acquiring bomb-making technology.

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