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NEW DELHI, Friday (AFP) India would use nuclear weapons only in retaliation if it came under a nuclear attack, Junior Foreign Minister Digvijay Singh said.

"Nuclear weapons will only be used in retaliation against a nuclear attack on Indian territory or on Indian forces anywhere," Singh said in reply to a question in the upper house of parliament.

Responding to a separate question, Singh said India rejects the US Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) view that it was a "secondary proliferator" of weapons of mass destruction.

"The government has, during official interactions with the United States, rejected such a description of India as baseless," Singh said.

The minister said an unclassified report of the CIA to the United States Congress on acquisition of technology relating to weapons of mass destruction for the period July 1, 2001 to January 7, 2003, referred to India along with other countries including Pakistan as "secondary proliferators".

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