By Y.P. Rajesh

NEW DELHI, June 27 (Reuters) - India sought to calm on Wednesday opposition to the first port call by a U.S. aircraft carrier, saying firm environmental measures were in place for the visit of the nuclear-powered vessel.

The USS Nimitz is due to anchor off the southern port city of Chennai from July 1 to 5 in what has been termed as yet another landmark event in the growing warmth between Washington and New Delhi.

But India's powerful communists have opposed the port call saying the United States was trying to absorb New Delhi into its sphere of military influence, while some port workers have expressed environmental fears about the nuclear carrier.

The leftists have also planned to organise protests in Chennai during the port call.

"This is not the first visit by a nuclear-powered ship to an Indian port," the Indian Defence Ministry said in a statement. "Nuclear-powered ships and submarines from France, the United Kingdom and the United States have visited Indian ports.

"The Indian navy has operated INS Chakra, a nuclear-powered submarine, from 1988 to 1991," it added.

The ministry had an environment safety panel which listed steps to be taken every time a nuclear-powered vessel planned to visit a port and ensured their implementation, it said.

The measures include allowing the ship to move only during the day and in good visibility, not allowing any other ship to be berthed within a radius of 200 metres (650 ft) and frequent monitoring of water and air samples for radiation.

"Accordingly, a standing Environmental Survey Committee has carried out a detailed survey at Chennai and cleared the visit of USS Nimitz from a radiation hazard point of view," the statement said.

The U.S. embassy in New Delhi said "the nuclear safety record of U.S. nuclear-powered warships is outstanding", adding that there has never been a nuclear accident in their nearly six-decade history.

Some Indian commentators said the port call was also an attempt to heal historic scars.

They said it brought back memories of 1971 when Washington sent another aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, to the Bay of Bengal to intimidate India as it fought Pakistan in a war that led to the creation of Bangladesh.

"India refused to blink ... but it was an affront New Delhi never forgot," Chidanand Rajghatta, foreign editor of the Times of India newspaper, wrote on Wednesday.

"Unstated, but clearly on the agenda, are also efforts to heal the 1971 abrasion," he said.

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