New Delhi, May 11: The Congress on Monday said the government, should have taken the party into confidence before conducting the nuclear tests at Pokhran, which it said would escalate tension in the South Asian region.

"As the Opposition party, the Congress should have been taken into confidence. And the Vajpayee government should be concerned about the consequences of conducting the tests" Congress foreign affairs cell chairman K. Natwar Singh said. Mr Singh told reporters his party would ask the government if the tests were a prelude to going nuclear. "We will ask the government in all seriousness if it is going in for a nuclear weapons programme," he said.

Carefully refraining from welcoming the test itself, Mr Singh complimented the nuclear scientists behind it. "We congratulate our nuclear scientists and engineers on this demonstration, once again, of our scientific prowess," he said Asked about the timing of the tests, coming days after the controversy over defence minister George Fernandes' pronouncements on China, Mr Singh said his party intended to find out. "We would like to know the timing and the provocation for the tests," he said.