US set to complete nuclear deal with India

As Washington steps up pressure on Iran and North Korea to abandon suspected nuclear weapons programs, US officials are completing a nuclear deal with India that critics says is a threat to non-proliferation efforts. India has agreed to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor civilian nuclear plants. But it will decide which of its sites are civilian, and any designated military will remain off-bounds and free to produce more nuclear weapons as India builds the sophisticated missiles to deliver them. After meeting the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Jan. 12, John Kerry, the former Democratic presidential hopeful who sits on the powerful Senate foreign relations committee, said he supports the deal, which is still being negotiated, in principle and called it "a very positive step forward." But he echoed concerns that it allows India to keep producing the weapons-grade nuclear material. The same day, the foreign ministers of Germany, Britain and France declared that more than two years of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program have hit a "dead end," and called for the matter to be brought before the United Nations Security Council for tougher action, setting the stage for a long-awaited international showdown. The nuclear deal with India goes back to July, when President Bush and Singh agreed to resume nuclear cooperation in energy and other civilian fields, even though India refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Under the Atomic Energy Act, Bush needs congressional support to initiate nuclear cooperation between the US and India. The US-led international moves to isolate India after it tested a nuclear bomb in 1974, when India was a close ally of the Soviet Union. Sanctions were tightened when India and neighboring Pakistan carried out a series of tit-for-tat nuclear weapons tests in 1998. But the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and India's growing economic and military strength, have radically changed Washington's views of South Asia. The Bush Administration has moved quickly to forge a close "strategic partnership" with India, which includes accords for closer cooperation in high-tech fields such as space flight, satellites and missile defense.