``These are sensitive and strategic sectors relating to national security and scientific subjects. So, we want to keep it away from foreign investments,'' Bakht said in an interview.

The government is proposing to open the insurance sector only to domestic private sector operators, but not to foreign investors, he clarified.

The government, he said, has adopted a conscious policy for speedy clearance of foreign investment proposals to send out the right signals to foreign investors. ``It has been decided that an application has to be cleared within 90 days as announced by prime minister AB Vajpayee.''

Bakht further said that the government is also widening the area of automatic approvals for foreign-direct investments by including roads, ports and high-technology fields in the list. Powerprojects have already been included in the list.

``We are working on expanding the automatic approval list to ensure that there are few restrictions on foreign investors in infrastructure sectors like ports, roads and airports. "We need to encourage foreign investment in infrastructure and high technology areas. But the high-technology areas, including bio-technology, need to be tackled with an eye on patent laws,'' he added.

Besides, the government is also exploring on the other areas which can be included in the list.Government guidelines, at present, allow FDI proposals to go through automatic approval up to the specified equity cap of 50 per cent, 51 per cent and 74 per cent, according to the sector concerned.