NEW DELHI (AFP) - India stressed yesterday an operating agreement with the United States on a landmark nuclear deal will not fuel a nuclear weapons build up in the South Asia nation.
Top Indian officials said the agreement, announced yesterday, dealt exclusively with generating much-needed energy to fuel the nation's fast-growing economy.
"We have got a deal... a very good deal," said national security advisor M.K. Narayanan who headed India's delegation to Washington earlier this week for talks to seal the agreement.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday in a statement that the so-called "123 agreement," which comes after years of talks between the two nations, had been adopted.
Rice did not provide details of the accord which according to reports in the US had gone beyond the terms approved by the US Congress.
Lawmakers there have threatened to block the deal if it sidestepped safeguards to prevent military uses of the technology.
In December, Congress gave approval to landmark legislation allowing US export of civilian nuclear fuel and technology to India for the first time in 30 years.
It was aimed at reversing three decades of sanctions on India for its nuclear tests. India announced a moratorium on testing weapons in May 1998 but has not signed the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty.
Narayanan told a press conference that the deal was not an opportunity for India to increase its nuclear arsenal.
"I think it's time certain countries overcame the belief that we are interested in proliferation," Narayanan said in New Delhi.
He was responding to a question about whether imported fuel under the deal would free up India's domestic supplies for nuclear weapons.