US State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher confirmed on Thursday that the US embassy in India closed public services on Thursday, including visa services and the American Information Resource Center.

The precautionary measure "is in response to threat information that was received from law enforcement sources," Boucher said at a news briefing.

"The embassy's security posture is being reviewed to see whether it would be prudent and when it might be prudent to resume public services. At this point there is no decision on reopening public services, but we hope to resume the services soon," Boucher said.

Boucher declined to say whether the closure was al-Qaeda related and said the United States got information from law enforcement sources and felt it was "a good precaution" to close the public services of the US embassy in India.

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2004)