Albright said the way the Glenn Amendment, the law under which the united states has imposed sanctions on India and Pakistan, is written, it is "all stick and sledgehammer and no incentives," with no waiver authority or flexibility for the President.

"What happens is we have all the sticks or sledgehammers and then other countries come in and pick up the contracts (which US companies would have normally secured)," she said in an interview to CNN.

Glenn, who also appeared on the television network, claimed, "the unilateral sanctions have lost its utility in the changed scenario and the biggest problem the us faces now is that it cannot unilaterally influence theworld."Any approach we take has to be a multilateral approach," he said.

Reflecting the fact that the democratic administration cannot always have its way in the republican-controlled Congress, Albright said, "we have, for implementing our foreign policy one President of the united states and one secretary of state.

"We are responsible for implementing foreign policy and we need some flexibility. I cannot do business, the president cannot do business, with our hands tied behind our back," she noted.

Albright said as a result of the sanctions, "aid programmes to India and Pakistan have been drastically cut by over a billion dollars. They lose that. This is a disincentive (to proliferation). The problem that we have is that the Glenn Amendment as it is currently written does not allow for any incentives." Under the circumstances only the Congress can provide the required flexibility, Madeleine Albright added.