By IPS Correspondents
NEW DELHI, Mar 15 2003 (IPS)

Just when it is having to fend off insinuations of a pro-US tilt, the Vajpayee government has rebuffed a US "request" for the expulsion of three high-ranking members of the Iraqi mission here.

According to the ‘Economic Times’, a New Delhi-based English daily, the "no" was conveyed to Washington last week, no sooner than the request had been received.

Those whose expulsions had been sought figure among the 300-odd Iraqi diplomats spread over 60 countries and identified by the US as engaged in espionage work. Members of the Iraqi mission in New Delhi, who featured on the list, are known to be fairly senior.

Iraq’s Ambassador Salah Al Mukhtar in New Delhi, who will shortly take up his next assignment in Vietnam, does not figure in the list. His departure is described as part of a routine reshuffle, as he has spent more than three years here.

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