Recognising India's energy needs, a senior Russian official has called for making an exception for the country in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to give it access to civilian nuclear technology.

'We cannot ignore India's energy requirements. It is a rapidly developing country with a good non-proliferation record. We should probably make an exception in this case without adopting new norms that may erode the non-proliferation regime,' Director of the Foreign Ministry's Security and Disarmament Department, Anatoly Antonov told pro-Kremlin Vremya Novostei daily.

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On the non-proliferation aspects of the G-8 policy, Antonov said the NPT is an invaluable element of international security and stability, which the follow-up conference has proved, even though it failed to formulate practical recommendations for strengthening the NPT.

'However, it has reaffirmed the main point, that the NPT can and must be used to deal with new challenges and threats to the non-proliferation regime,' Antonov observed.

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He said that Iranian and North Korean nuclear programmes remain on the G-8 agenda.

'We will continue the search for new political and diplomatic approaches to settling this problem. We will use the services of the International Atomic Energy Agency to find a mutually acceptable solution on Iran, which would allow Tehran to develop nuclear power engineering and at the same time ensure a purely peaceful dimension of its nuclear programme,' he said.