No U.S. word on Reliance's fuel sale to Iran: India minister

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The United States has not raised the issue of gasoline sales by Reliance Industries to Iran, but New Delhi has told the U.S. government that issues with Tehran should be settled by talks, not sanctions, India's junior oil minister said.

"The government of India has conveyed to the U.S. government that sanctions on Iran have proved to be counter-productive and that all differences with Iran should be resolved through dialogue and negotiations," Jitin Prasada told parliament on Tuesday.

The U.S. Senate in end-January approved legislation that would let President Barack Obama impose sanctions on Iran's gasoline suppliers and penalize some of Tehran's elite, a move aimed at pressuring Iran to give up its nuclear program.

Washington and Tehran are locked in a bitter dispute over the Iranian nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at producing atomic weapons and which Iran says is purely for civilian uses such as generating power.

Prasada said Reliance last supplied gasoline to Iran in April and May 2009.

Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, imports about 40 percent of its gasoline to meet domestic demand because it lacks refining capacity.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; editing by Malini Menon)