WASHINGTON, April 19 (Xinhua) -- The United States said on Thursday that it will not change its laws to allow India to keep the right to resume nuclear weapons testing under a civilian nuclear energy deal being negotiated by the two countries.

    "It's an issue that's covered by our law and ... in as much as it is affected by, it bumps up against U.S. law, we're not going to change our laws," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said when asked about India's stance on nuclear testing.

    "We have conveyed to the Indian government that there are certain issues that they might like to raise concerning issues that are covered by our national laws, and those are issues we're not going to go back and re-legislate," McCormack said.

    McCormack made the remarks a week after India had successfully tested nuclear capable Agni III on April 12, which has a strike range of 3,000 km.

    The United States and India reached an agreement in July 2006 to give India unprecedented access to U.S. nuclear fuel and technology for its civilian power sector without requiring New Delhi to sign a nuclear weapons non-proliferation treaty as normally required by U.S. law.

    Washington hailed the agreement as a presentation of a new relationship between the United States and India following decades of Cold War tensions.

    It was reported that in its negotiations with the United States, India refused to commit formally to its voluntary unilateral suspension on nuclear weapons testing and insisted to keep the right to reprocess nuclear fuel.