The US embassy in Kathmandu has said the news report that the US is likely to resume arms supply is inaccurate.

Talking to Nepalnews Thursday morning, spokesman of the US embassy in Kathmandu, Robert Hugins, said the news report carried by Daily News and Analysis, an Indian news portal, is “inaccurate.” “Our embassy in New Delhi has also spoken to the reporter of the news portal and informed him that his story is inaccurate,” he added.

Mr. Hugins said the statement made by US Principal deputy assistant secretary for South and Central Asian affairs, Donald Camp, during his visit to Nepal early this month presented the accurate US position on the issue.

In its Wednesday edition, www.dnaindia.com quoted unnamed government sources of India as saying that the US was set on restoring military supplies to Nepal.

“The move is likely to make India angry,” the news report claimed.

India, the US and UK—major providers of arms assistance of Nepal—continue to stop their arms supply to Nepal in protest of the royal takeover of February 2005.

“India and the US have recently begun to drastically differ over Nepal, especially on Maoists. The difference flows out of American view of Maoists as terrorists and India’s belief that the Nepali Maoists must be brought to the mainstream and should not be treated just as terrorists,” the news report said.

During his visit to Kathmandu early this month—just a week after the President George W. Bush’s visit to South Asia—Donald Camp flatly denied reports that the Bush administration was likely to resume arms supply to Nepal. “First, we can not have (that) kind of cooperation with Nepal since February 1 last year. We would like to see the return of the situation of pre-February 1 where we were contributors to the security assistance,” Camp told reporters at a press conference. “The second legal aspect is that the Leahy amendment prohibits financing security assistance to Nepal until Nepal has returned to democracy and certain conditions on human rights have been fulfilled.”

While a senior Indian official told Indian parliament recently that Nepal had requested India to resume its arms supply, the US officials have not said anything if they have also received similar requests.