India today said it remains committed to a credible minimum deterrent and termed as "misplaced" the contention that the Indo-US nuclear deal would either enhance or cripple its strategic capacity.

"India remains committed to a credible minimum deterrent," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said. Asked about media reports that India can make 50 nuclear warheads a year, he said "unfortunately, there has been a considerable amount of misinformed speculation about our nuclear programme".

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Making it clear that the nuclear deal with the US was about civilian nuclear energy cooperation and not about India's strategic programme, he said the Separation Plan, relating to civilian and military facilities, tabled in Parliament was "clear and ambiguous just as the July 18 Joint Statement (reached between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] and President George W Bush [Images]). There is no room for misinterpretation".

He said the "argument that the nuclear deal with the US would enhance our strategic capacity is as misplaced as its opposite extreme that it would cripple our programme".

The spokesman said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [Images] had "accurately summed up the situation in her Congressional testimony when she has noted that the nuclear deal would have no impact on our strategic programme."