Do not expect India to sign NPT in present form: ElBaradei

NEW DELHI: IAEA Director General Mohammad ElBaradei has said that he does not expect India to sign the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) but feels Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) could be more "acceptable".

"I do not expect India to sign the NPT in its present form...Maybe the CTBT would be more acceptable," he told CNN-IBN.

His remarks assume significance in the wake of the United Nations Security Council adopting a resolution asking all non-NPT states, including India, to sign the NPT.

India has made it clear that it will not sign the pact as a non-weapon state as atomic arsenals are integral to its security.

The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said India has to lead efforts for complete nuclear disarmament, an idea it first mooted as far back as in 1948.

ElBaradei, who received the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, said the world was looking to India for the future of nuclear energy research and development, according to a press release issued by the news channel.

On reports of Iran developing a secret uranium enrichment plant, he said that Tehran was "on the wrong side of the law" by not declaring its plans when construction began.

"Iran has been on the wrong side of the law in so far as the IAEA regulation to inform the agency at an earlier date," ElBaradei said.