US, India adopt 'historic' nuclear agreement

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States and India announced yesterday that they have adopted an operating agreement for a landmark nuclear deal but the pact still has to be cleared by a sceptical Congress.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Indian counterpart Shri Pranab Mukherjee in a joint statement hailed the agreement as a "historic milestone" in relations.

President George W. Bush said he looked forward to working with Congress to implement the nuclear deal, saying it marked "another step" in deepening ties with India, which he called "a vital world leader."

Congress in December approved landmark legislation allowing US exports of civilian nuclear fuel and technology to India for the first time in 30 years, a move intended to reverse sanctions on the Asian giant for its nuclear tests.

But the operating agreement goes one step further to allow India to reprocess spent fuel under safeguards by the global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, the US pointman in the talks to frame the pact.
 
That right to reprocess spent US-sourced nuclear fuel has been given only to Japan and the European Union so far, and US lawmakers had expressed skepticism over safeguards needed to deter India from possibly diverting any nuclear material to its military weapons program.

Burns said that India had to first establish a new national nuclear reprocessing facility under strict safeguards and then the two countries would agree on a set of arrangements and procedures for such activity.

India had given firm assurances that all nuclear material reprocessed would be used "only for peaceful purposes," Burns said.

He admitted that the pact, known as the "123 agreement," would come under tight scrutiny in Congress, when it is forwarded to the legislature for a vote possibly by the end of 2007.

"This is a very big step and Congress is going to look at it very carefully," he said.