WASHINGTON — Interim export control guidelines that have been put in place for India and Pakistan give U.S. high-tech companies some flexibility in keeping their commercial contacts in the world's two latest nuclear powers.

But final export guidelines could extend the tight restrictions that have been placed on military hardware to other dual-use technologies currently shipped to India, said U.S. officials debating sanctions against the south Asian rivals. These restrictions could affect EDA design firms of U.S. companies currently operating in India, a U.S. Department of Commerce official said.

"The sanctions are likely to close most if not all trade with the Indian government, and we're still trying to decide whether to extend [export restrictions] to the private sector," said Roger Majak, assistant secretary for export administration at the Department of Commerce.

Commerce's Bureau of Export Control said on May 29 that it is suspending all existing export licenses for items that could be used for nuclear or missile programs. However, U.S. exporters can continue to ship some dual-use technologies to private Indian and Pakistani enterprises under existing U.S. export licenses, the Bureau said, unless informed otherwise by the agency.

The interim export guidelines are part of a series of diplomatic and economic sanctions required by U.S. law after India and Pakistan respectively conducted a series of underground nuclear tests in recent weeks. The export restrictions have caused confusion among U.S. high-tech firms with business operations in both countries.

"We are getting a lot of calls from industry," a senior Commerce official said on Thursday. Most of the queries focus on business with India. According to U.S. estimates, U.S. trade with India that is subject to export licensing totaled $295 million in 1997, while trade with Pakistan totaled only $5 million last year.

All pending export license applications for India and Pakistan are on hold, according to the interim export guidelines. All pending applications covering controlled items like technology and software with military applications are also being denied. For instance, pending applications to export to either government high-performance computers capable of performing 2,000 million theoretical operations per second will be denied.

While final export guidelines are likely to end exports of military technology that could advance Indian and Pakistani nuclear or missile programs, the Commerce official said "the area that is unclear is how we are going to handle conventional military dual-use technologies." These include telecommunications, computers, software and machine tools.

"There may be some additional controls [on dual-use technologies] but we just don't know what they are yet," he added.

Asked whether U.S.-Indian EDA design centers that currently operate under U.S. license exceptions could be affected by tougher export restrictions, the Commerce official responded, "It could be depending on what kind of data moves back and forth." Export officials are meanwhile gathering data on design-collaboration projects before making recommendations.

The heated interagency debate over how to far to go in restricting high-tech exports to India and Pakistan centers on whether to disrupt thriving commercial collaborations between U.S. and Indian hardware and software design firms. "The Commerce Department, at least, wants to avoid that," the Commerce official said.

"The sanctions will apply to the [Indian] government," he said.

The Commerce, Defense, Energy and Treasury departments, along with other export agencies, are debating final guidelines on exports to India and Pakistan. The interagency group hopes to complete the guidelines by the end of this month.