Admitting that the United States' sanctions imposed on India in 1998 did not deter the country from continuing with its atomic programme, a nuclear expert has told the Senate that it is Washington's own interest to have nuclear cooperation with New Delhi.

Siegfried Hecker, the co-director for the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, told a Senate Sub Committee on Appropriations dealing with Energy, "India does not view itself as a proliferator but as a legitimate nuclear weapons state."

"I don't think our sanctions have particularly stopped its (India) nuclear weapons programme. What our sanctions have done is slow down their nuclear energy programmes," he said.

"In turn, they have made the Indians actually significantly more capable in nuclear energy technology -- and I believe it will be in our benefit to have nuclear cooperation for nuclear energy with India," Hecker told the Senate.

"One has to do this trade-off in India and make the decision as to whether the risks are worth the benefits," he said.

"Their reward for refraining from nuclear testing is that they were now caught outside of the nuclear proliferation regime. They view that as having been discriminatory from the word go. They will never abide to it. They will never get rid of the nuclear weapons they have now until there is global disarmament," the Stanford expert said.