Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hopes that the United States will help India get the official status of a nuclear weapons state, given its impeccable record in the field of non-proliferation.

"Well, I hope it will happen," he told Fareed Zakaria of the CNN when asked if he thinks that the US should try to press the issue and have India brought into the system as a nuclear weapons state.

The interview was taken in New Delhi, before Singh travelled to Washington last week. Its first part was telecast on Nov 22, while the second part was aired on last Sunday.

It would be a positive development, the Prime Minister said when Zakaria asked if it is "fair to say that one of the ultimate objectives of India would perhaps be to become a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty system, but to be invited in as a nuclear weapons state in the way that China was." Despite its status as a nuclear nation, India has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Zakaria noted.

India's ultimate goal is actually to sign the treaty, but it does not have official nuclear state status. China got that in 1992, and that is what India wants, Zakaria said.

"Well, if we were to go that way, that would be a very positive development from our point of view," Singh said. "We are a nuclear weapons state, but we are a responsible nuclear power. We have an impeccable record of not having contributed to unauthorised proliferation of these weapons of mass destruction," he said.

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