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India, US reach `milestone' civilian nuclear agreement

After a year of negotiations, India and the US on Friday announced completion of a civilian nuclear accord, which Indian officials hailed as preserving India's national security interests and as a testament to its emerging strategic importance to the US.

Indian National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan called it "a touchstone of a transformed bilateral relationship between India and the US."

In Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the agreement a "historic milestone" that would enhance relations with India.

The agreement, forged during five rounds of negotiations, requires India to separate its civilian nuclear power reactors and open them to international inspections.

US concessions

But in the end it was the US that appeared to make more concessions. India stuck fast to its demand to be able to reprocess spent fuel from the reactors on the civilian side, which had raised concerns in Washington about opportunities to produce weapons-grade plutonium for India's military arsenal.

The final agreement will allow India to carry out the reprocessing but requires it to develop a new facility dedicated to that purpose and subject to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.

Under US law, the US would have to cut fuel supplies in the event of another Indian nuclear test, but the final agreement does not spell out what would happen in such an eventuality.

"We've got a very good deal, which we believe will meet the requirements of both countries," Narayanan said at a news conference on Friday evening.

For their part, officials in the administration of US President George W. Bush largely sidestepped questions about why they decided to carve a large exception to Bush's declaration three years ago that no additional countries should be manufacturing nuclear fuel.

They argued that India -- one of three countries that have refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, along with Israel and Pakistan -- has never posed a proliferation risk and would use its new fuel solely for peaceful purposes at a safeguarded facility.

But in other cases, most notably that of Iran, the US has rejected building such facilities, even if international inspectors reside there. While India has committed itself to using US-origin fuel only for civilian reactors, outside experts have noted that a result will be to free up other sources of fuel for its weapons.

Some critics of the deal, led by Democratic Representative Edward Markey, have vowed to try to defeat it. But it appears unlikely that opponents will be able to muster the votes, especially in an election year when ethnic Indian US citizens are being courted by both parties.

Sticking points

The final agreement allayed the two sticking points that Indian critics of the deal -- including its scientists -- had held up as offending national sovereignty.

Sitting beside Narayanan at the news conference was the last holdout on the deal, the Indian Atomic Energy Commission chairman, Anil Kakodar, who went as far as to call it "a satisfactory thing."

Narayanan said Kakodkar's blessings had helped to blunt political criticism of the deal. Neither the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party nor the government's leftist allies, who have balked at India's friendlier relations with the US, commented on Friday night.
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