Confirming the Royal Bank of Canada development, a top BoI official said that its London branch's request for a $10-million line of credit from the Canadian bank had been turned down. "We will follow our US partners in adhering to the sanctions," said a communique from the Royal Bank of Canada to Bank of India.

Meanwhile, some Japanese banks have got in touch with Indian banks and assured them of business support after earlier deciding to stop lines of credit. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi general manager Hisao Koshino said that the bank was prepared to provide any service to Indian banks from any part of the world.

"After checking with our offices in US and Tokyo about any problem in dealing with Indian banks, Ihave not found any," he said.

However, his statement is only applicable to the current stand of the bank, not for the future. "We have not received any thing from our central bank so far," he said, adding that he was not in a position to say anything about future developments.

However, a top official at BoI maintained that the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi had refused to provide any line of credit to the bank on Monday, but had apparently changed its stand on Tuesday.

"Our manager from the Tokyo office has categorically informed the head office about the refusal of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Asahi Bank and Fuji Bank to deal with our bank," said the top official of BoI.

"We have asked our Tokyo manager to ascertain the number of banks which are prepared to deal with us," he said.

According to him, his bank is facing problems in dealing with US-based Chase Manhattan and Bank of America while business relations with Citibank and Amex are as usual.