Along with this, the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) is expected to take control of the rare metal plant near Mysore where enriched uranium is being made.

The decision to militarise BARC's secret programme was apparently taken soon after the BJP-led government came to power in March as is evident from the fact that the latest campaign on nuclear tests was carried out under the leadership of DRDO. In contrast, no military official was present during the 1974 Pokhran test which was totally an affair of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).

Sources said this week's nuclear tests and the Prime Minister's statement that India is a nuclear weapon state has ended the ambiguity over the country's nuclear option.

"So we believe the military project at BARC will be separated from the civilian programme," the sources said.

BARC's otherdefence project is a nuclear submarine project for which it has designed and built a reactor. The "Advanced Technology Vehicle" as the project is known, is under development at a DRDO laboratory at Vishakapatnam.

Sources said BARC started work on the design of nuclear explosives in 1968 at the instruction of prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Starting virtually from scratch, a dedicated team at BARC designed a rather crude device which was tested at Pokhran on May 18, 1974.

The programme went on expanding with the creation of more facilities related to weapon research: a centrifuge enrichment plant at Mysore, a very high pressure facility for simulation studies, and a plant to produce tritium, the key ingredient used in Monday's thermonuclear blast.

According to P K Iyengar, former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, BARC was preparing to test the hydrogen device but it was stopped by Indira Gandhi's advisors.

Preparations for the test in December 1995 had to be aborted following threats of sanctionsby United States whose spy satellites had detected the activity at Pokhran.