The United States has placed India and China on watch list for not doing enough to fight human trafficking and claimed that part of the enormous economic growth in the developing countries is being fuelled by bonded labour.

The Indian government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for elimination of trafficking, it said but conceded that New Delhi is making "significant efforts" to fight bonded labour.

A new report released by the State Department showed yesterday that the most dismal record is of the US' Persian Gulf friends including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman who complete with Iran, North Korea and Myanmar for failure to stop human

trafficking or take action against traffickers.

Equally dismal was the record of Sudan. Syria, Myanmar, Cuba, Fiji. Moldova, and Papua New Guinea, according to grading done by the annual report.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka were somewhat better off as they were placed countries that do take steps to fight it -- Tier 2, second of the three categories in which the countries have been divided.

In India, the report said, clothing and brick making are two major booming industries in which forced labour, debt bondage and hazard conditions are common. Bracketed with India in clothing sector are Bangladesh, Jordan and Malaysia. Similar conditions exist in shrimp industry in Thailand, it says. For brick making. India and China were bracketed.