Bush to Sign India Nuclear Deal Into Law on Monday
    Reuters

    Tuesday 12 December 2006

    Washington - President George W. Bush will sign into law on Monday a civil nuclear cooperation deal that allows the United States to sell nuclear technology to India, the White House said.

    Congress gave final approval on Saturday to the legislation which the Bush administration and its allies say will expand ties with the world's largest democracy and open up billions of dollars in trade for U.S. companies.

    Critics say the legislation, which helps clear the way for India to buy U.S. nuclear reactors and fuel, will undermine efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons.

    But congressional sponsors said the legislation included some restraints, such as requiring the president to stop U.S. exports of nuclear materials if India tested another nuclear device as it did in 1998.

    India said it views the nuclear cooperation deal as a big step forward but it was wary of conditions attached to it by Congress.

    "The government has taken note of certain extraneous and prescriptive provisions in the legislation," India's Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told parliament.

    The deal reversed 30 years of U.S. policy that had opposed nuclear cooperation with India because the country developed nuclear weapons in contravention of international standards and never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.