What the US administration and or the US President communicates with the US Congress or a member of the US Congress is entirely their problem,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said.

He said India is bound only by the terms of the 123 agreement, which does not prohibit the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technology which is integral to the civil nuclear cooperation.

The Congress leader pointed out that in case India conducts a nuclear test, the 123 agreement has provision for launching consultations before taking any action.

“I have read the statement. But I will not comment,” said External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee when asked by reporters for his comments on the controversial disclosure by the Bush administration.

The United States also downplayed the State Department letter.

“This letter contains no new conditions and there is no data in this letter which has not already been shared in an open and transparent way with members of Congress and with the Government of India,” said Ambassador David C Mulford.

“The government of India is partner of this great deception of the Indian people, which the Bush administration has engineered because it knew what exactly it was doing,” said CPI-M politburo member Brinda Karat.

Just a few hours to go before the Nuclear Suppliers Group meets in Vienna to discuss waivers for India, a letter written by the Bush administration to its Congress has spelt it out clearly the US will terminate nuclear trade if New Delhi conducts a nuclear test.

Government sources said the letter was an internal document of the US State Department and was not binding on India. India is bound only by the 123 Agreement, the sources said