The Bush Administration has exhorted India to join its campaign to isolate Iran even as it has defended New Delhi's relations with Teheran as no more than the ties Washington's allies have with the Iranian government. It has also predicted that it's not likely to jeopardise the US-India civilian nuclear agreement.

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, asked by rediff.com during an interaction that followed his keynote address at a conference on US-India relations, if the Administration was concerned over the warning by senior lawmakers that the nuclear deal would be in jeopardy if India continued its 'strengthening relationship' with Iran, said, "First let me say that it is important to note the United States government does not believe that any country should be selling arms to Iran."

"Iran's an aggressive power, it's the central banker for Middle East terrorism -- it's a supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah. So we don't believe that any of our friends should be selling it arms. So we would encourage all of our friends not to have normal military relations with Iran because it is such a negative and aggressive power," he said.

"And obviously," Burns added, "We believe that Iran should be isolated in  the world as it continues to thumb its nose at the United Nations Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency."

Thus, he argued, "This business-as-usual approach by any country around  the world -- not just India but European countries, Asian countries -- we think is  unwarranted given the degree of the number of problems associated with Iranian foreign policy."

But Burns acknowledged that 'having said that, the reality is while the United States does not have diplomatic relationships with Iran, nor do we have  economic relations, all of our allies in Europe have diplomatic and economic  relations as do all of our allies in Asia - Japan, South Korea and other countries'.

"So when looking at the question of India's relations with Iran, it really has to be measured against what we expect of all our allies," he said. "I do think that India needs to be judged in comparison with the Asian countries and our European allies, not looked at in isolation. I don't think this needs to threaten the civil nuclear agreement."

However, Burns said, "We'll continue to watch India's relations with Iran, and we'll obviously respond very respectfully to any concerns by  members of our own Congress as we should do."

He reiterated that he believed the US-India strategic partnership could be developed 'and not have India's relationship with other countries impinge upon that relationship because I do see it as somewhat equal to what many of the other allies of the United States have done in Asia and in Europe'.

Last month, several senior US lawmakers, including Congressmen Tom  Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the author of the enabling legislation to facilitate the US-India civilian nuclear agreement, and other staunch supporters of the deal like Congressmen Gary Ackerman and Ed  Royce, the erstwhile Democrat and Republican co-chairs of the India Caucus, signed a letter initiated by Congressmen Howard Berman -- author of killer  amendments to kill the deal during the House debate on the legislation -- to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warning of their concern over India-Iran  ties.

The lawmakers warned, that 'the subject of India's strengthening relationship with Iran will inevitably be a factor in the consideration of that (US-India nuclear) agreement when it is presented to Congress'.