India warns US against changes in nuclear pact

INDIA: India warned the United States Congress not to tinker with a controversial civilian nuclear cooperation deal and said it would not accept any significant changes to the agreement.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who sat through most of a seven-hour angry parliamentary debate, took to the floor to defend the landmark agreement, which has become a symbol of the new friendship between India and the United States.

He rejected charges of a sell-out, said India's sovereignty would not be compromised and warned the U.S. Congress not to attach conditions to the deal aimed at imposing restrictions on India's nuclear programme by the back door.

"We will not agree to any dilution that will prevent us from securing full civilian nuclear benefits," he said.

"The proposed U.S. legislation will not be allowed to become an instrument to compromise India's sovereignty," he said, in an emotional speech that lasted more than an hour.

The civilian nuclear cooperation pact is meant to help India meet its soaring energy needs.

It gives nuclear-armed India access to U.S. atomic fuel and equipment like reactors, despite not having signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In return, New Delhi has agreed to international inspections of its civilian nuclear reactors, and the segregation of its civilian and military programmes to ensure that supplies to its civilian programme would not be used to make atomic bombs.

The deal has already been passed overwhelmingly by the U.S. House of Representatives and is now due to go before the Senate. But Indian legislators warned that Congress was attaching conditions to the agreement which were not in India's interests.

Singh warned that if the final terms of the deal did not conform to the parameters originally agreed by the two countries, India would draw "necessary conclusions". He did not elaborate.

The Nuclear Suppliers Group of nations that regulates global atomic trade must also give its approval to the deal.

Some changes proposed by U.S. politicians include a clause that would make it mandatory for the U.S. administration to certify every year that India is sticking to the deal's terms.

Other amendments proposed by members of Congress include the end of nuclear cooperation if India conducts a nuclear test as well as caps on using spent nuclear fuel.

Singh said he had already conveyed India's concerns about the proposed changes to President George W. Bush.

"The nuclear agreement will not be allowed to be used as a backdoor method of introducing NPT-type restrictions on India," he said, as supporters cheered by thumping their desks.

"We have made it clear to the United States our opposition to these provisions," he said. "There is no question of India being bound by a law passed by a foreign legislature."

Singh's response culminated weeks of constant sniping over the deal by opposition politicians as well as communist allies who shore up his coalition.

Earlier on Thursday, one senior communist member of parliament said his party did not want Washington to use the deal as part of a carrot and stick policy to further its geopolitical goals.

"They want you to enter into this deal so that we buy their reactors. Are we actually helping the American economy to survive or is it in the vital interest of India?" asked Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

New Delhi, Friday, Reuters