Washington, Dec 19: The United States has dismissed the idea of propping up India as a counterweight to China by agreeing to scrap the 30-year-old ban on nuclear exports to New Delhi.''We don't have a policy that would build up a relationship with India to contain China,'' Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said yesterday. ''And we feel that China is an important friend of the United States.'' ''But it's also true that our strategic interests in South and East Asia dictate good relations with the major powers,'' he added.Talking to mediapersons at the White House, shortly before President George W Bush signed a legislation, giving effect to the India-US nuclear deal, Mr Burns said ''we have, I think, one of the more interesting foreign policy developments of the last few years and that is the degree to which the US-China relationship has improved.'' Calling China as an important friend of the United States, he acknowledged, ''we have some issues that separate us, but in general the direction is good there.'' Mr Burns also said, ''now for the first time since 1947, we have an excellent relationship with India. ''We are improving relations with China and improving Japanese-Chinese relations, he added.''These are all good signs for stability in Asia, South and East Asia, and it is very important that we're cooperating with great power of that region on a number of issues,'' the senior State Department official said.He explained at length as to why the US Congress had inserted in the bill a requirement that the President should certify that there is no transfer of Indian nuclear technology to Iran.Mr Burns said, ''there has been no history of India transferring nuclear technology to Iran, but because Tehran is one of our greatest concerns these days, and we're looking for ways to shut down any possible provision of capital or technology to the Iranians for their enrichment programme. ''I think, based on my own conversations with members, I just wanted to make absolutely sure that this was going to be part of the agreement and part that New Delhi would acknowledge and the Indians have,'' he added.He drew attention to what he called the two ''important'' votes over the last 14 months in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to essentially repudiate and sanction Iran and India joined the United States in both of those votes. It was the first country outside the P5 (five permanent members of the UN Security Council) to do so. And that allowed Brazil and Egypt and some of the other non-aligned countries to follow India, Mr Burns said. ''So we don't have any doubts that India also wishes to deny Iran nuclear weapons capability and I think India has had a very responsible policy in that,'' he added.In reply to another question, he said, ''we also want to see India decreasingly dependent on West Asian oil, including -- oil and gas from Iran and serve that interest.'' When asked whether the Iranian provisions are binding or non-binding in the law, Mr Burns replied, ''I believe it is a non-binding provision. It's a sense of the Congress.'' Earlier, Mr Burns said, ''this (the agreement) is a major initiative for this administration, and indeed for the United States, because what the legislation does. It permits United States companies to trade in nuclear fuel and to invest and construct nuclear power plants in India for the first time in three decades.'' ''We believe that there's a basis for India and the United States now to become strategic partners in the world. President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have outlined a broad initiative designed to bring the two countries closer,'' he said.Asked as to when the US Congress would approve the technical details of nuclear trade (the so-called one-two-three agreement), Mr Burns said, ''It will essentially be a codification of the last 18 months of our negotiations.'' He said India would also have to negotiate a safeguards agreement with the IAEA. ''Then we hope the rest of the world will take the step that we've taken, and we hope the Nuclear Suppliers Group (which controls the global nuclear trade and has 40 civil nuclear countries as its members) will agree by consensus that all of them will lift their restrictions on India, as well,'' he added. UNI