India seeks IAEA nod to push atom pact with U.S.
VIENNA (Reuters) - India on Wednesday submitted a draft nuclear safeguards accord to International Atomic Energy Agency governors for approval, the IAEA said, a crucial step towards launching a U.S.-Indian nuclear cooperation deal.
Communist opposition in India had long prevented India's coalition government from advancing the deal through several hurdles to put it into force. But the logjam eased when communists left the government this week in protest.
Proponents of the U.S.-India accord say it will move the Asian giant's trade and diplomatic relations closer to the West and more broadly promote an alternative to high-polluting and expensive oil and gas energy in developing nations.
Critics say it will encourage nuclear proliferators by lifting a ban on sales of U.S. nuclear fuel and reactor technology imposed after India -- one of just three nations outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) -- developed atomic bombs in secret and conducted a nuclear test in 1974.
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the safeguards text, which India hammered out with IAEA inspectors early this year, had been sent to the agency's 35-nation board after the New Delhi government gave the green light.
The agreement allows for regular inspections of India's declared civilian nuclear reactors.
BOARD MEETING
Board members were discussing a date for a special meeting. Diplomats said this could happen on July 28 at the earliest.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government has begun lobbying for votes to survive a no-confidence motion, expected within weeks, after the communists' defection. New backing from a regional party may be enough to avoid an early election.
Time is running out if the nuclear deal is to be ratified by the U.S. Congress, the last stage in the implementation process, before President George W. Bush leaves office in January.
India must also obtain a waiver for the nuclear deal from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, where reservations lurk because NSG regulations ban trade with non-NPT states. It is unclear when the NSG, which acts by consensus only, will meet.
"A number of states will have serious questions, serious concerns. They will not like to be railroaded by time pressures into approval," said a Western diplomat accredited to the IAEA.
Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association urged IAEA governors not to simply rubber-stamp the safeguards deal.
"Given that India maintains a nuclear weapons program outside of safeguards, facility-specific safeguards on a few additional 'civilian' reactors provide no serious non-proliferation benefits," he said in Washington.
He said governors should also be alert for any Indian assertion of a "right" to abrogate the safeguards pact if foreign fuel supplies are interrupted, even if that is because India had resumed nuclear testing.
"Such proposals should be flatly rejected ... as illegitimate and contrary to IAEA standards," said Kimball.
(Editing by Janet Lawrence)
