Indian leader meets with Congress

WASHINGTON - India's prime minister asked for U.S. understanding of his country's pursuit of a nuclear arms program in what congressional leaders hailed as a historic speech yesterday on Capitol Hill.

''We both share a commitment to ultimately eliminating nuclear weapons,'' Atal Bihari Vajpayee said in an address to a joint session of Congress, a prelude to his meeting today with President Clinton.

''India understands your concerns. ... We wish you to understand our security concerns,'' he said.

The comments tackled head-on a main disagreement in U.S.-Indian relations: India's decision to carry out nuclear tests two years ago and its refusal to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Vajpayee said it is not necessary for security to continue to ''cast a shadow'' over relations between the two countries, which have improved greatly since the Cold War.

Instead, the United States and the world's largest democracy should unite against their common enemies of poverty, terrorism and hunger to ''shape the character of the global economy in this century,'' said Vajpayee, who delivered his speech seated rather than standing because of a knee problem.

''India and the United States have much to gain from a close relationship,'' he later told a lunch meeting of congressmen, Indian-American businessmen and other guests.

At a White House bill-signing ceremony, Clinton said the two nations ''need to have a better and closer and more constructive relationship.'' He added that he hoped the United States could help end the dispute between India and Pakistan over violence-torn Kashmir, a Himalayan territory split between the two countries.

''If you look at how well the Indians, the Pakistanis, and the Bangladeshis who have come to America have done - the extraordinary percentage of them who are involved in high-tech economy professions - it is tragic to think what this conflict has done to hold back the people.''

Members of Congress, who frequently interrupted Vajpayee's speech with applause, praised the speech and Vajpayee's assertion that India and the United States are embarked on ''a new beginning in our relations.''

''This truly illustrates India's growing importance to the United States,'' House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said of the speech.

''It was historic, unprecedented, and I do so much hope that events move as (the prime minister) so eloquently hoped they would,'' said Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the New York Democrat who once was U.S. ambassador to India.

Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., called Vajpayee's invitation to work with the United States on a range of common issues ''very forward leaning ... symbolizing a new stage in U.S.-Indian relations.''

Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., who heads the House International Relations Committee subcommittee on Asia, noted that India has taken some steps to open its markets. But he said the country ''would be well served by implementing additional economic reforms and trade liberalization if it intends to become a major world economy.''

At a meeting between Vajpayee and the House International Relations Committee, Chairman Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., noted reports of violence against Christians in India and urged the prime minister to assure religious freedom for all citizens of his nation.