The Indian government Thursday said External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh was "fully involved" in the decision-making that led to the vote against Iran at a review of its nuclear programme by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"Natwar Singh was fully involved in the decision-making process," external affairs ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in a statement.

He was reacting to a report in The Asian Age newspaper that Natwar Singh was "left out of the loop" before India took the crucial decision to vote on the resolution at the Vienna-based IAEA which paves the way for reporting Iran's nuclear programme to the UN Security Council.

Denying this, Sarna said: "The attention of the ministry of external affairs has been drawn to a news report in The Asian Age (29.9.05) stating that (Natwar Singh) was not aware of the government of India's decision on the vote in IAEA.

"This is factually incorrect. The news report is mischievous and false.

"Natwar Singh consulted all members of the Cabinet Committee on Security and the prime minister before communicating the government's decision to our ambassador to the IAEA," he asserted.

In a front-page report, the daily said: "Prime Minister Manmohan Singh personally spearheaded the pro-US coup leaving minister of external affairs Natwar Singh completely out of the loop.

"The minister has been abroad since Sep 11 in France, the US and more recently Canada and was not involved in the negotiations with Washington that led India to cast a vote against Iran at the IAEA Board of Governors meeting at Vienna."

The report claimed Manmohan Singh had "directly taken over the crucial aspects of foreign policy, handling all issues like Pakistan, Iran and China in which the Americans have an interest".