``It's been widely reported that there's not likely going to be a trip...I don't have any reason to dispute that,'' White House spokesman Mike McCurry said at a briefing on Tuesday.

Other administration officials said that while the commitment by the Prime Ministers of the two countries to sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was a positive step, it did not constitute sufficient movement towards easing tensions in that region.

The President may reconsider the timing of the visit and look at fresh dates next year if more progress is made, officials said. The White House was looking at a mid-November window to tie it up with President Clinton's November 17-18 visit to Malaysiafor the annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

``This isn't cancellation as punishment; this is postponement because of progress. We have to have more time to lower tensions significantly. We just don't have that between now and November,'' a senior administration official was quoted as telling The Washington Post.

The President was originally scheduled to visit India in March or April but that was deferred because of the fluid political situation in New Delhi. The nuclear tests in May, as much as the onset of summer, decisively pushed the visit back by several months.

``You don't want to look like you're doing anything that rewards them for breaking out of the international [arms control] regime. But at the same time you want to use a Presidential visit to coax the non-proliferation agenda ahead,'' the official said, explaining the delay in the visit, which would have been the first Presidential trip to the area in two decades.

President Jimmy Carter last visitedIndia in January 1978. But there was other spin to the delay in the trip which US officials did not dwell on. Political and security conditions in Pakistan was also a dampener for the visit. Islamabad flashed clear signals to indicate that a visit would be difficult if it was not preceded by an economic bailout and a resolution of the F-16 problem.

New Delhi too displayed a marked lack of enthusiasm for the visit, saying in fairly blunt terms that it might be difficult to entertain a Presidential visit when US sanctions against India were still in place. Indian officials repeatedly emphasised that they would much rather the visit take place in more positive circumstances.

A proposed visit that was dangled as a carrot before India and Pakistan was soon a sour proposition which was difficult to entertain given the domestic mood, Indian and Pakistani officials admitted privately.

The sex scandal which embroiled President Clinton also made a visit at this time less attractive, officials said.

The WhiteHouse would have welcomed such a visit, if nothing else to deflect attention from the domestic troubles arising from the sex scandal. But the final call was there was just not enough percentage in what would certainly have been a very high-profile visit.