Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday denied that India was under U.S. pressure on Iran nuclear issue and added that nuclear-armed Iran is not in India's interest.

"It is a fact that Iran had a clandestine nuclear program for several years and it is not in our interest to have another nuclear weapon state in our neighborhood," Singh said when meeting with a delegation of Muslim leaders here Tuesday.

Iran should have all the rights and duties of a signatory state to the Non-proliferation Treaty, he added.

"There is no question of succumbing to any external pressure in regard to our foreign policy," he said in response to a question on India's vote against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last year.

He also noted that improvement in the relations between India and the United States is in the interest of India.

Source: Xinhua armed campaign for an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey in 1984.

Source: Xinhua