The Bush administration, after fierce debate, is backing China's membership in an influential group that controls nuclear exports despite Beijing's insistence on providing atomic reactors to Pakistan, a country with a troubling nuclear record.
Washington has sought assurances in recent days from China that power reactors for Pakistan will be subject to international safeguards but so far have not received a satisfactory response, one official told Reuters.
Nevertheless, "We're supporting their membership," a State Department spokesman said.
"They are a significant nuclear supplier, have a good enough non-proliferation record and have made significant improvements in exports controls on nuclear and dual-use items," he said.
Whether the US would support China's bid for membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group was heatedly debated. State Department moderates backed the move while hard-liners, including Undersecretary of State John Bolton and the Pentagon, opposed it, officials said.
The decision reflects a broader struggle as Washington tries to balance proliferation concerns with a need to work with Pakistan and China on other problems. Both countries are allies in Washington's "war on terrorism."
The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), established in 1976, controls exports of equipment and materials that can be used to make nuclear weapons.
Guidelines require members to withhold certain nuclear transfers "when there is an unacceptable risk of diversion to such [nuclear weapons] activity."
The NSG last year invited China to apply for membership and Beijing did so. Now the group, including France, Britain and Russia, is deciding whether to let the bid be approved by consensus.
China has been the principal supplier of nuclear equipment and services to Pakistan since the late 1970s.
This includes helping Islamabad construct a 300 megawatt nuclear power reactor at Chasma, Pakistan. Last week, China and Pakistan agreed on a second Chinese reactor at Chasma.
Pakistan developed nuclear weapons unencumbered by international arm controls. The father of its program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, ran an international blackmarket that sold nuclear secrets to North Korean, Iran and Libya.
The State Department recently imposed sanctions on 13 companies, including five in China, for trading with Iran, which Washington says has an aggressive nuclear weapons program.
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