The government in the United States has clarified that it does not support NGO's to work against the civil nuclear projects in India.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said recently that foreign-based NGO's are fueling opposition to its peaceful nuclear projects. US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland has said that the US government supports India's investment in civil nuclear power.

She said that the US government's support for NGO's is limited to development and for democracy programmes and is not for opposing India's nuclear projects. She was asked to respond to the remarks of the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which he said that US NGOs are funding opposition movements in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu to nuclear power projects.

"As you know, we are strongly supportive of India's investment in civil nuclear power. The NGOs that we fund in India are involved in the same kind of democratisation projects, et cetera," said Nuland.

Speaking on another subject she expressed optimism on the number of steps taken by the governments in India and Pakistan to build trust and warming of relations on trade, economic and investment side.

When asked if the US is playing apart in improving the relations between the two countries, she said that the US government is only encouraging the governments and the two countries are working on their own to improve their bilateral relationships.