Washington/New Delhi, Feb. 6: Less than a fortnight before India and Pakistan are to start bilateral talks, an unnatural coalition between Delhi and Islamabad that has puzzled the world for many years is showing signs of strain: thanks to nuclear proliferator Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Foreign minister Yashwant Sinha’s assertion today that Khan’s global nuclear black market is “not merely an internal matter of Pakistan” and that “things will not stop here” directly contradicts his Pakistani counterpart Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri’s statement that Pakistan will not allow international inspectors to “peep into our (nuclear) programme”.

Kasuri told BBC today that Pakistan is a “responsible nuclear power” and that “anything that impinges on our own national security is out of the question”.

For decades, India and Pakistan had shared views on issues like the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and found themselves on the same side of the fence at global venues like the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

Diplomats from both countries have fought together against nuclear blackmail of non-weapon states by the big powers especially since the nuclear tests in Pokhran and Chagai in 1998.

Indian diplomats in Washington who have been discussing the Khan episode with Bush administration officials say Pakistan’s recent disgrace over proliferation of nuclear technology has altered this equation.

One diplomat yesterday drew the imaginative picture of India and Pakistan having been hitherto on a railway platform trying to get into the crowded carriage called nuclear club with room for only five persons.

Khan’s confessions mean that Pakistan will be left standing on the platform as the train pulls out of the station, but India will stay on the footboard continuing its effort to secure a place in the carriage.

Significantly, Sinha said: “These are issues which will have to be debated in the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and elsewhere so that we have a more responsible behaviour from countries which have nuclear capability.”

His statement coincided with a declaration by IAEA spokesperson Mark Gwozdecky in Vienna that “this apparent nuclear supermarket is the most dangerous phenomenon we have seen in many years.... Unfortunately, it doesn’t end with Mr. Khan… and for us what we need to know is who supplied what, when and to whom and did anyone else get this kind of assistance”.

The US state department continued to be inundated with questions from the media on proliferation by Pakistan.

The department’s spokesperson, Richard Boucher, said yesterday that “what is important in this case is... that the network and the individuals who were doing this in Pakistan or from Pakistan be found out, stopped, prevented from making any such transfers again. And second of all, that the information that they develop... is shared with the international community, because the international community as a whole needs to go after this network that extends far beyond Pakistan in some cases”.

In Washington, the issue is also spilling over to Capitol Hill, which may have unpredictable results for Islamabad even as the administration is trying to shield its ally, General Pervez Musharraf.

Yesterday, Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone wrote to secretary of state Colin Powell, voicing concern that “Musharraf has pardoned Dr. Khan, declared him a national hero, and refused to allow for further inquiry into this situation”.

Pallone wrote: “This is extremely disconcerting on a number of levels and I request the state department work with the UN and appropriate agencies to enter Pakistan and monitor its nuclear programme.”