NEW DELHI India on Tuesday demanded entry to the exclusive club of nuclear weapon powers and insisted it would not buckle under the weight of condemnation which has greeted its nuclear tests. We are a nuclear weapons state and the international community should address us on these terms, said Defence Minister George Fernandes, quoted by the Times of India. Fernandes criticized the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferaton Treaty which defines Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States as declared nuclear states for creating an exclusive club whose aim is to preserve their own nuclear hegemony.

The countries criticizing us have themselves conducted several tests and possess many bombs, he added. India's Hindu nationalist government shows no signs of moderating its defiant stand to last week's surprise testing of five nuclear devices, including a thermonuclear bomb. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is to pay a high-profile visit the Pokhran test site in the northwestern desert on Wednesday to give personal thanks to the test team.

Two senior ministers lashed out at Pakistan and china on Monday, accusing the neighbouring countries of having hostile designs on India. The government stand received strong media support on Tuesday, with many editorials railing against what they perceived as the hypocrisy of the reactions of the big five powers. America and the other four must now sit up and take notice.

India has blown open the doors of the club, said the statesman. (AFP)