Biden cool to U.S. compromise on India deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress is unlikely to compromise on core disputed elements of a nuclear cooperation agreement with India, an influential Democratic senator said, as both nations struggle to complete the deal by month's end.

Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and supporter of the landmark deal, outlined narrow conditions under which he and other legislators might consider altering U.S. law on nuclear testing and reprocessing that India has opposed.

"No, I think it would be very difficult to do that," Biden, a Democratic presidential hopeful, told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday when asked if he could foresee compromise on those issues.

Meanwhile, key Democratic and Republican congressmen on Wednesday warned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that New Delhi's ties with Iran have "significant potential" to harm U.S.-India relations and final approval of the nuclear deal.

In a letter, they urged Singh to provide assurances "that India will cease illicit procurement activities in the U.S., sever military cooperation with Iran and terminate India's participation in the development of Iran's energy sector," which could trigger U.S. sanctions.

The much-heralded U.S.-India nuclear deal would give India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and reactors for the first time in 30 years, despite the fact that New Delhi tested nuclear weapons and never signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

It is the touchstone of a new U.S.-India relationship that Washington hopes will be a foundation of 21st century international security.

But disputes about India's intentions on nuclear testing and reprocessing have proven thorny with both U.S. President George W. Bush and Singh under political constraints that limit compromise.

DISPUTED ISSUES

Although U.S. officials had long predicted quick completion, there have been growing fears the deal could unravel. U.S.-India negotiations this week revived talk of progress, and Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said he would visit India later this month to try to close the deal.

The pact was approved by Congress in December in a new law called the Hyde Act, but the countries have since struggled to negotiate a bilateral agreement laying down detailed terms of nuclear trade. Congress also gets to vote on the second agreement.

India claims Congress imposed new conditions, but U.S. experts say the Hyde Act reflects U.S. obligations under other U.S. laws and commitments.

One major obstacle is the legal mandate that Washington halt nuclear cooperation if India tests a nuclear weapon as in 1998.

Other disputed points are U.S. refusal to give India prior approval to allow reprocessing of spent fuel with U.S. components and to assure permanent fuel supplies.

Biden said the only circumstance meriting compromise was if India could make a case that its two adversaries, China and Pakistan, "were materially altering" the regional balance.

"Then I think it it would be a whole different discussion. But absent ... demonstrable evidence that they (Indians) were signing themselves into an inferior position by taking on this agreement, I ... can't see anything that would justify the U.S. in a material way changing those two items you mentioned," he said.

The letter signed by Democrat Tom Lantos, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, senior Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and others was the third, and strongest, in recent days by different groups of lawmakers expressing rising concern over Indian-Iranian ties.

At a news conference in Washington on Tuesday, Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon played down the Indian-Iranian relationship and said the U.S. administration had not pushed the issue.