Jimmy Carter in India on mission to build homes for poor

New Delhi, Oct 27 (UNI) While India and the United States are building bridges of friendship, former US President Jimmy Carter is here to build homes--literally--for the poor.

A staunch critic of the Indo-US nuclear deal, Mr Carter visualises relations between the two ''great democracies'' growing, despite hiccups in the July 2005 agreement.

He said his idea was to promote worldwide the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and discourage testing and development of nuclear weapons and control of fissile material by the international Atomic Energy Agency.

''I am not here in that capacity to discuss the nuclear deal...I don't have any official role to play. The US Congress has to take decisions. Any nation which has a nuclear weapon should be under the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty),'' Mr Carter, who arrived here last night on a three- day private visit to India, said in an interaction with some reporters.

Rejecting assertions that Indo-US relations would be adversely affected if the deal did not go through, Mr Carter said there was more to Indo-US relations than just the Nuclear deal.

''I hope not,'' he said when asked if the relations would be affected in case the deal did not materialise.

''Two great democracies must search for every possible way to cooperate economically, politically and militarily,'' he added.

He was referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address to Parliament early this year on the civil nuclear deal.

Mr Carter also met the Prime Minister and discussed several issues including Nepal, the Middle East Peace Process (MEPP) and his housing project.

However, the main purpose of his visit to India is to construct houses for poor people.

Mr Carter and his wife Rosalynn, co-founders of an NGO, the Carter Centre, are engaged in constructing houses for poor people, promoting human rights and alleviating poverty.

The couple will leave for Maharashtra tomorrow where the Carter Centre will construct 100 houses for the poor.

He also plans to build 30,000 houses in the 11 countries ha were hit by Tsunami in December 2004.

Describing as a ''mistake'' the US involvement in Iraq, he said the US must now ensure that there is stability in that country.

On North Korea, he called for a ''direct'' bilateral dialogue between the US and that country. Also the US should give assurances to Pyongyang that that US forces would not launch an attack in return for assurances that it would not conduct any more nuclear tests.

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