New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS) Ahead of a likely Senate vote on bilateral civil nuclear deal this month, the US Friday urged India to accelerate bilateral cooperation in high technology and clarified that there are "no India-specific sanctions", but only licensing requirements on trade in technology items.

"There are no India specific sanctions or controls that do not apply to other countries," said Steven Goldman, a top official of the US Department of Commerce said.

"Export controls are not an impediment in India-US high technology cooperation for those are licensing requirements," Goldman, director, Office of Nonproliferation and Treaty Compliance in the US department of commerce, added.

Goldman underlined that 99 percent of US items exported to India do not require a license. Out of about $12 billion trade in high tech only 1 percent requires license, he said.

Goldman was speaking at an interactive discussion on "Current and Prospective Opportunities in US-India High Technology Trade" organised by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

He also sought to dispel the "misperception" that export controls posed a major barrier of trade in technology between India and the US and added that there was a huge "untapped potential", specially compared to high-technology between the US and China.

The legislation on the India-US civil nuclear deal, after it is passed by the US Congress and finalisation of a bilateral agreement, will lead to the dismantling of decades-old technology denial regime and open up avenues of international nuclear commerce for New Delhi.

Goldman delineated a group of nine areas in which advanced technology exports from the US takes place: biotechnology, lifescience, opto-electronics, information & communication, electronics, flexible manufacturing, advanced materials, aerospace and nuclear technology.

Alluding to the Indian nuclear test on May 11, 1998, Goldman admitted that the sanctions had a "dampening effect", but did not terminate trade with India.The situation changed dramatically after the waiver of sanctions by US President George Bush in September 2001, he said.