India's new government vowed on Thursday to maintain a "credible nuclear weapons program" as it evolved confidence-building measures with its nuclear neighbors.

The government's Common Minimum Program (CMP) or agenda for governance, which was issued here Thursday, said it would "take a leadership role in promoting universal nuclear disarmament" and work for a nuclear weapons-free world.

"The United Progressive Alliance government is committed to maintaining a credible nuclear weapons program while at the same time it will evolve demonstrable and verifiable confidence-building measures with its nuclear neighbors," the CMP said.

The government said it would ensure that "all delays in the modernization of the armed forces are eliminated and that all funds earmarked for modernization are spent fully at the earliest".

The stand on maintaining a nuclear arsenal marks a shift for the Congress party, which leads the coalition.

After a Congress government led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi conducted India's first nuclear test in 1974, an event then described as a "peaceful nuclear explosion", the party subsequently adopted an ambiguous posture on the nuclear option.

It was only after the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government stunned the world with a series of nuclear tests in May 1998 that there was a change in the thinking of the top leadership of the Congress.