At the fourth executive meeting of the State Council, China's Cabinet, presided over by premier Zhu Rongji here on Monday, new regulations envisaging stricter control on China's export of nuclear technology and equipment was passed.

``The meeting discussed and passed in principle the regulations on grain purchase, the regulations on control of export of nuclear products and related technology for military or civilian purposes...,'' the official Xinhua news agency said.

This is in sequel to an earlier order of September 10, 1997, when the State Council announced tighter controls on its nuclear exports, ahead of Chinese President Jiang Zemin's state visit to the US.

By promulgating the regulation and putting into practice, China, one of the five global nuclear powers, and a signatory to theNuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), hopes to put its clandestine nuclear exports under stricter government control based on law, sources said.

They said the action is also noteworthy since it was passed on Monday, ahead of US President Bill Clinton's national security adviser Samuel R. Berger's high-level meetings here yesterday to finalise the agenda for talks between Jiang and Clinton later this month.

Senior Indian leaders including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Defence Minister George Fernandes have repeatedly expressed India's concern over the clandestine cooperation between China and Pakistan in the nuclear and missile fronts. This is supported by emerging US intelligence reports after Pakistan conducted its own nuclear tests in retaliation to India's tests.

China has denied these charges many times. Answering a question at a foreign ministry briefing, spokesman Zhu Bangzao said, ``China will never support, encourage or engage in a nuclear proliferation.''

Describing China as a``responsible major country'', Zhu said the Chinese government always opposed the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their carriers.

He also said that China has adhered to commitments on missile exports, in keeping with its non-proliferation policies. Sources said China's clandestine role in the proliferation of nuclear and missile technology will surely come up for discussion during the forthcoming Jiang-Clinton summit.``There is no doubt the issue will figure prominently since China's staunch ally, Pakistan carried out its tests despite all out efforts by the Clinton administration to prevent Islamabad from carrying out the nuclear tests.''``This has also exposed China's destabilising role in South Asia by propping up Pakistan as a counter-balance against India,'' sources said.

China said its laws to prevent illegal sale or transfer of technology to other countries were fool-proof and the controls were based on three basic principles: serving peaceful purposes only, accepting supervisionand safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and forbidding transfer to any third party country without China's consent.

China first announced government controls on its nuclear exports in May, 1997 which said that the nuclear materials, nuclear equipment and related technology, as well as non-nuclear materials for reactors and nuclear-related dual-use equipment, materials and relevant technologies on China's export list must not be supplied to or used in nuclear facilities not under IAEA safeguards.