Washington's rebuff, taken with its negative response to New Delhi's broad suggestions that it may consider signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) if the high-tech sanctions are lifted, marks a hard-line position on the eve of talks between the US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and India's special emissary Jaswant Singh who arrived in Frankfurt in the evening.

The US position was outlined by State Department spokesman James Rubin, who said that with ``respect to minimum deterrent... we strongly believe that the deployment of nuclear weapons in South Asia would be a dangerous development -- one that would seriously undermine the security of both India and Pakistan.''

While Rubin and other mid-level mandarins are defending theofficial line in the sand, senior US officials, from President Bill Clinton to Deputy Secretary Talbott, have expressed greater appreciation of India's security concerns vis a vis China. The problem appears to be how to rein in and fit Pakistan into the security paradigm.

Now, after a decade of not talking at all about nuclear matters, the whole slew of issues -- safeguards, nuclear-related sanctions, fissile material cut off, test ban treaty -- will be on the table again judging by indications from both sides.

Significantly, Talbott is taking with him to Frankfurt Robert Einhorn, who is a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department, but whose designation camouflages his expertise in the technical aspects of nuclear issues. Einhorn has been the pointman for Washington's parleys with Beijing on nuclear issues and is the State Department's principle troubleshooter in the area.

Talbott himself is no minnow in nuclear matters and is a renowned arms control pundit. Policy insiders say PresidentClinton and Talbott share a common vision of USA's long-term friendship and interest in India that sees beyond the current nuclear test related crisis and is more farsighted than the limited vision of other hawks in the administration.

In one particularly insightful moment, Talbott is said to have echoed Clinton's sentiments at a recent briefing in stating that ``India has been a friend of the US for a lot longer than other states in the region, including very large states in the region. We want to see India prosper and thrive and attain its aspirations for itself in the next century.''

The Talbott-Singh meeting in Frankfurt is the second round to talks between them and depending on how it all pans out, Talbott is expected to visit India later in the month for a third round.

Administration officials were cautious about the outcome of the talks saying: ``We are not on the verge of achieving that (signing of the CTBT) at this point; we're in the process of discussing it.''

American officials here arealso suggesting meanwhile that India and Pakistan ``seriously engage in negotiations on a fissile material cut-off,'' ahead of a proposed international treaty on the matter.

The reasoning appears to be now that both countries have announced a self-imposed moratorium on further nuclear testing, a fissile material cut-off capping production of bomb grade fuel is more urgent than getting them to sign the CTBT.

Capping fissile material production would bring the negotiating parties to the tricky area of safeguards. Americans would like India and Pakistan to put all their nuclear facilities under full-scope safeguards that is, open to international inspections but the idea is anathema is New Delhi, which cannot see why it should open up its indigenously built nuclear facilities to scrutiny.

At present, facilities like Tarapur, which was built with US help, is under safeguards, but not say Kalpakkam, which is an indigenous plant.

US officials say India's offer to sign the CTBT if high-tech sanctions arelifted makes no sense because the two issues are not related. High-tech sanctions were imposed because of New Delhi's refusal to sign the NPT and non-compliance with safeguards.

The issue of safeguards has long been a thorn in Indo-US ties and has stymied even civilian nuclear cooperation between the two sides. In one famous response to the routine American harangue on safeguards following the flap over Tarapur in the 1980s, a former Indian ambassador to Washington, had quipped, ``The US has married one girl in the family, but wants to sleep with everyone.'' He precisely meant that the US has the right to demand safeguards for Tarapur because of the help it provided, but it was trying to intrude into the entire Indian nuclear program.