US praises India nuclear deal, presses for passage

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-19 10:28

WASHINGTON -- With time running out in this year's Congress, the Bush administration urged lawmakers Thursday to approve quickly a US-Indian nuclear cooperation accord it portrays as the cornerstone of a new relationship with an emerging Asian power.

Lawmakers must act soon if the deal is to be ratified before they are scheduled to leave next week for the year to campaign for November's elections. William Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, warned the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that a failure to ratify the deal would keep US firms from doing business in India's multibillion dollar nuclear energy sector. He praised India as a "role model in the international community."

But the accord, one of Bush's top foreign policy initiatives, faces strong criticism from opponents who say the extra fuel the measure provides could boost India's nuclear bomb stockpile by freeing up its domestic uranium for weapons, which could spark a nuclear arms race in Asia.

The Bush administration needs the Democratic-controlled Congress' help to overcome a law that says lawmakers may not ratify the accord for 30 working days after they receive it.

Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, who was serving as the committee's acting chairman, told reporters that there was a "strong desire to reach agreement," but some lawmakers have reservations.

Dodd raised the possibility of including a deal considered by the Senate and House of Representatives in a spending bill that would almost certainly be passed before lawmakers leave Washington. "I don't see any likelihood a freestanding proposal would have any opportunity for consideration," he said.

The accord would reverse three decades of US policy by shipping atomic fuel to India in return for international inspections of India's civilian, but not its military, reactors. India has refused to sign nonproliferation agreements and has faced a nuclear trade ban since its first atomic test in 1974.

Republican Sen. Richard Lugar asked whether the agreement is consistent with US law calling for its termination if India should test a nuclear device or spread nuclear technology.

John Rood, acting undersecretary of state for arms control, said the United States believes India will stand by a voluntary, unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing. But, he said, "Just as India has maintained its sovereign right to conduct a test, so too have we maintained our right to take action in response."

He repeated Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's 2006 comments that should India test nuclear weapons, the deal would be called off.

"India is taking the necessary steps to secure nuclear and other sensitive materials and technology," Rood said.

Also Thursday, the nonprofit Institute for Science and International Security released a report that noted "several incidents where India conducted illicit nuclear trade and leaked sensitive nuclear information." It urged Congress to clarify past and current practices at it considers nuclear cooperation with India.

"India may be releasing sensitive know-how to firms that ... may be seeking centrifuge design information for secret nuclear programs," the report said. Centrifuges spin uranium gas into enriched uranium, which could be used in a weapon.