NEW DELHI (Agencies) - Japan's Foreign Minister on Tuesday said Tokyo needed assurance a crucial nuclear accord between India and the United States will strengthen disarmament efforts after key talks here on the issue. Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura and his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee discussed the pact, which would lift nuclear sanctions against India after it tested atomic weapons. "We need to confirm that this nuclear cooperation agreement ... will not undermine disarmament efforts," Komura told reporters after the talks. The Japanese Minister also pressed India to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). "Japan has been continuously requesting India to join the NPT and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. This is something we will not change our position on and continue to ask India," Komura said. Japan is a key player in the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which controls the transfer of nuclear material and needs to approve the India-US deal. Its rules ban trade with states that have not signed the NPT. "We need to confirm that the nuclear cooperation is satisfactory, in the sense that it will further strengthen international disarmament and not undermine nuclear disarmament," Komura said. "We intend to join discussions which will be held in future." "We are fully aware of Japan's sensitivity to this issue," Mukherjee said. "Keeping that in view, I reiterated our firm commitment for total nuclear disarmament and strict adherence to the conditions of non-proliferation." "On our commitment of all major conditionality of NPT in nuclear trade, India's record is impeccable," Mukherjee said. "Therefore, I don't find any difficulty in getting the cooperation of the international community." The Bush administration has said it's "mindful" of the legislative calendar and expressed optimism the deal will be approved when it reaches Congress. Komura said Japan will lend $970m to India for the year to March 2009 to support a host of infrastructure projects. India has been the largest recipient of low-interest Japanese loans in the past five years, visiting Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said in New Delhi. Last year, Japan provided more than two billion dollars in loans to India, according to officials of the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi. The loans are designed to help the construction of a new subway in southern Chennai city, a road and a power plant using biomass as fuel, among other projects, the embassy said. Meanwhile, the Japanese government announced closure of consular section of its embassy in India and cautioned its citizens to keep away from crowded places such as markets and train stations after receiving an e-mail warning of a possible attack. Japan's Embassy in New Delhi said in a statement in Japanese on its website that it had received an e-mail warning of an attack on New Delhi's popular market district of Sarojini Nagar, where at least 66 people were killed in a 2005 bomb attack.