US President George W. Bush headed for India yesterday as talks on a landmark US-Indian nuclear pact were down to the wire and tens of thousands of Indians rallied in New Delhi to protest his visit.
The pact is touted as the cornerstone of an emerging strategic partnership between the two countries after nearly a half-century of Cold War estrangement. But negotiators have struggled to settle differences over how to separate India's tightly entwined civilian and military atomic programs.
"Our people are talking to the Indians, today on the plane," Bush said during a stop in Afghanistan. "We'll be doing so when we land in New Delhi."
He called the pact a "difficult issue" for both governments.
"Hopefully we can reach agreement, and if not we will continue to work on it until we do," he said.
The last-minute efforts to seal the nuclear pact coupled with yesterday's protests underscored India's mixed feelings toward Bush and the US -- a country many here see as a friend but also a global bully.
While Bush remains more popular in India than he is in many other countries, some here object to US policies, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. India, an overwhelmingly Hindu nation of more than 1 billion people, has the world's second-largest Muslim population.
Indian and US officials had hoped to seal the nuclear deal before Bush arrived, but disagreements over which of India's nuclear facilities would be put under international safeguards have delayed talks.
"We need a certain degree of clarity on our mutual commitments," Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran told reporters on Tuesday. "We need to make sure there are no ambiguities which may create difficulties for us in the future."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice singled out one particularly contentious subject.
"The one thing that is absolutely necessary is that any agreement would assure that once India has decided to put a reactor under safeguard that it remain permanently under safeguard," she said.
Rice and US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley briefed reporters on Air Force One as Bush flew from Washington.
The pact would allow the US to provide nuclear technology and fuel desperately needed by India to feed its booming but energy-starved economy.
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India hangs on a nuclear breakthrough
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