Burns says "time is wasting" on India nuclear deal

By Arshad Mohammed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saying "time is wasting," U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said on Friday he hoped India could quickly get international approvals needed for the U.S.-India civil nuclear deal to go through this year.

The agreement would give India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and equipment for the first time in 30 years even though New Delhi has tested nuclear weapons and refused to join nonproliferation agreements.

Proponents argue the deal will be the cornerstone of a new strategic relationship between the two nations. Some Indians, however, feel it infringes on their sovereignty while some nonproliferation advocates believe it undermines the global system designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

To go into effect, the pact has to clear three hurdles.

India must reach an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency to place its civilian nuclear reactors under U.N. safeguards and it must get clearance from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group that governs global civilian nuclear trade.

After those steps, it must secure a final approval from the U.S. Congress, where it enjoys bipartisan support but where its passage could be complicated by the short legislative calendar ahead of the U.S. November 4 election.

"Time is wasting. We don't have all the time in the world, particularly since this is an election year ... and so we hope very much that this process can now be expedited," Burns told Reuters in an interview.

"This agreement needs now to move forward more quickly. It's been suspended for a number of months and we hope, very strongly, that the Indians will be able to find their way forward and move this rather quickly in the weeks ahead," he added. "It is now up to the Indian government, of course, to complete this process so that we can get to a vote -- as early as possible in 2008 -- to the U.S. Congress."