India-US nuclear deal not easy sell in Washington

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – It will not be easy convincing
American lawmakers to approve a landmark nuclear deal with
India, but the administration is convinced the pact would
strengthen the global non-proliferation regime, a senior U.S.
official said.

“Sometimes bold ideas take a little while to be understood
or to be accepted,” U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns
told India’s NDTV news channel. “But we are very confident we
have done the right thing here.”

The comments came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
was due to defend the civil nuclear cooperation deal before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House of Representatives
International Relations Committee on Wednesday.

“They can’t just be expected to sign off on something
without having held hearings, which begin today, and without
having been able to get the detailed answers from the American
government which they are entitled to have,” Burns said in an
interview aired on Wednesday.

“There is no question that this is controversial.”

Under the India-U.S. nuclear pact, agreed on President
George W. Bush’s visit to India last month, India will receive
American nuclear technology — including reactors — and in
return separate its military and civil facilities and open up
civil atomic plants to international inspections.

The United States has been pushing for closer energy and
strategic ties with economically booming India but the White
House has to win Congressional approval for the deal.

India has been barred from acquiring nuclear technology for
three decades because it developed atomic weapons and refused
to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The deal, if
approved by U.S. lawmakers, would help end India’s nuclear
isolation.

Burns said bringing India’s civil nuclear industry under
international inspections would strengthen the global
non-proliferation regime, an argument that Rice would make
strongly in her testimony on Wednesday.