New Delhi, Aug 27 - A former top official's admission that the 1998 nuclear tests by India were inadequate from the security standpoint has left Home Minister P. Chidambaram 'puzzled'.

'We can't get into a stampede to sign CTBT (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty). We should conduct more nuclear tests which are necessary from the point of view of security,' K. Santhanam, who coordinated the tests, called Pokhran II, in the Rajasthan desert, told IANS.

'I have seen the report. I am puzzled. The government will find out, somebody will brief you,' Chidambaram told reporters after a meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs.

He was replying to questions about a report in The Times Of India daily Thursday that quoting Santhanam as admitting that the only thermonuclear device tested during Pokhran II was a 'fizzle.' A test is described as a fizzle when it fails to meet the desired yield.

Santhanam, while speaking to IANS, said': 'We should not get railroaded into signing the CTBT.' He was commenting on reports about the US pressuring India to sign the CTBT and the fresh efforts by the Obama administration to revive non-proliferation activism.