In a clear snub to the United States for commenting on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's upcoming visit to New Delhi, India on Tuesday said that it did not need any guidance on the future conduct of relations with other countries.

''Both nations (India and Iran) are perfectly capable of managing all aspects of their relationship with the appropriate degree of care and attention,'' a spokesman of the External Affairs Ministry said in response to a question.

He said it was important that the genius of each nation living in a particular region was respected and allowed to flower to meet the expectations of enriching relations with neighbours.

The spokesman said the government's attention had been drawn to a comment made by the US State Department, concerning the visit of President Ahmadinejad to India, on April 29.

''India and Iran are ancient civilisations whose relations span centuries. Neither country needs any guidance on the future conduct of bilateral relations as both believe that engagement and dialogue alone lead to peace,'' he said.

He said the situation in the region had always drawn the attention of both the nations and it could be seen perfectly well that these had been managed through continuous dialogue and exchange of delegations at various levels.

The Bush administration had expressed hope that New Delhi would ask Iran to comply with the United Nations Security Council's other requirements regarding its nuclear programme.

Washington would also encourage New Delhi to ask Iran to "become a more responsible actor on the world stage by ending its rather unhelpful activities" regarding Iraq and support for terrorism, State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey had said.

However, Casey said that it was up to India to decide how to manage its bilateral ties with Iran.

The American official made these observations when he was asked if Washington has any concerns about the Indian invitation to Ahmadinejad to visit the country next week and if the Bush administration had sent a message to New Delhi about the meetings.

"It's up to every country to determine for itself how it's going to organise its bilateral relations. Many countries, including some of our strong allies in Europe, have diplomatic relations with Iran. And it's up to them to determine how best to manage them," Casey said.

But, he added, "We would hope that the Indian government, or any government that was engaging with the Iranians, including with President Ahmadinejad, would call on him to meet the requirements that the Security Council and the international community has placed on him in terms of suspending their uranium enrichment activities and complying
with other requirements regarding their nuclear programme".

Casey said the US would also certainly encourage India to ask Iran to end its 'unhelpful activities' with respect to Iraq, with respect to support for terrorism, including organisations like Hezbollah and Hamas, and to otherwise become a more responsible actor on the world stage.

Ahmadinejad will be in New Delhi on a short visit on April 29 and meet Prime Minister Manmoha Singh. He will be the first Iranian head of state to visit India in five years.

India's ties with Iran have often been in the thick of row between New Delhi and Washington. American officials have targeted the proposed multibillion-dollar Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline and voiced strong reservations.

New Delhi's position on Iran's controversial nuclear programme is that it is not against Teheran's right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy within the framework of its international obligations but feels that another nuclear-armed nation in its neighbourhood is not in its interests.

National Security Adviser M K Narayanan recently said that India was in a position to promote a negotiated settlement to the Iranian nuclear stalemate and warned that "any mishandling will impact negatively on us."