India has hard choices on US nuclear deal-Rice

WASHINGTON, Friday (Reuters) - India has "difficult choices" to make on a controversial civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States before the deal can be completed, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

The landmark accord, agreed in principle in July but still to be negotiated in detail, would grant New Delhi access to civil nuclear technology it has been denied for three decades, provided it puts its civilian facilities under international inspections.

Senior-level talks in New Delhi last week failed to close the gap on major issues, including which Indian facilities would be designated as civilian and military. The military plants would still be off-limits to U.N. monitors.

"In order to move on to a new phase in which civil nuclear power would be available to India, India has to make some difficult choices," Rice told Reuters in an interview.

She refused to provide any details but insisted, "I think we're making progress."

Although announced with great fanfare, the deal has run into criticism from nuclear experts and some members of the U.S. Congress who say it undermines global nonproliferation goals.

A related issue is whether India will side with the United States when the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors debates Iran's nuclear program at a Feb. 2 meeting.

Rice did not speak directly of the Iran vote in the IAEA.

She said the nuclear agreement presented "a difficult set of issues."

"But it's very important to understand that in order to satisfy the concerns of the American Congress and our laws and the concerns of the (44-nation) Nuclear Suppliers Group, that there will have to be some steps taken to make sure that the proliferation risks are not enhanced by this deal," she said.

Both the U.S. Congress and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which sets rules for nuclear-related commerce, must approve the agreement.

For 30 years, the United States led the effort to deny India nuclear technology because it tested and developed nuclear weapons in contravention of international norms. Both India and its neighbor and nuclear-armed rival Pakistan have refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Bush now views India, a rising democratic and economic power on China's border, as an evolving U.S. ally and the new nuclear deal - allowing India to purchase nuclear reactors and fuel - is central to that vision.