Wednesday, September 13 2006 10:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: With the US Senate expected to vote on the India-US nuclear deal later this month, the American non-proliferation lobby has suggested the addition of a few more tough conditions to further complicate matters.

Addition of a determination that US civil nuclear trade does not in any way assist or encourage India's nuclear weapons programme is one such condition suggested by a group of 16 nuclear non-proliferation experts under the umbrella of the Arms Control Association (ACA).

The suggestions to remedy what they call serious flaws plaguing the US-India nuclear deal and "further offset the adverse effects of the arrangement on US non-proliferation and security objectives" were made in a letter delivered to Senate offices Tuesday.

The Bush administration and New Delhi are pressing Congress to enact as lenient of terms as possible for exempting India from US restrictions, but the experts are encouraging lawmakers to adopt and uphold measures essential for US security and non-proliferation, the ACA stated.

As it is New Delhi has problems with both the enabling legislation passed by the House of Representatives and the draft bill as approved by the Senate Foreign Relations committee.

But the Bush administration is keen to have it passed as it is now and have the kinks sorted out in a conference later between the two chambers to reconcile their separate versions into a final bill.

No date has been set for debate in the Senate as yet, as some senators are said to be concerned over the addition of the 'United States Additional Protocol Implementation'.

This is a second title of the bill that would implement an agreement between the US and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding IAEA inspections of US civil nuclear facilities.

Any further tinkering with the bill at this stage would further slow down its clearance by the Congress, a prospect that the Bush administration is keen to avoid as the current session scheduled to end around Sep 29 maybe this Congress' last before the Nov 7 Congressional election.

Another ACA suggestion is to prohibit the US government from continuing nuclear assistance or facilitating foreign nuclear exports to India if the Indian government or Indian entities break existing non-proliferation commitments and practices.

Yet another suggestion is to restrict full US nuclear trade until India joins the five original nuclear-weapon states in stopping the production of fissile material (plutonium and highly enriched uranium) for weapons or subscribes to a multilateral fissile production cutoff agreement.

"We believe these measures are necessary because India has neither joined the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), nor accepted safeguards on all of its nuclear facilities, and India's non-proliferation policy is not fully consistent with the non-proliferation practices and responsibilities expected of the original nuclear-weapon states," they wrote.

"As part of the proposed deal, India has pledged to accept safeguards on only eight additional 'civilian' nuclear facilities by 2014, while current and future military-related nuclear reactors, enrichment and reprocessing plants, and weapons fabrication facilities would remain un-safeguarded," the letter said.

Such 'partial' IAEA safeguards would do nothing to prevent the continued production of fissile material for weapons in un-safeguarded facilities, it said.

"Furthermore, foreign supplies of nuclear fuel to India could assist India's bomb programme by freeing up its existing limited capacity to support the production of highly enriched uranium and plutonium for weapons," the letter added.

The letter was signed among others by Harold Bengelsdorf, former director for nuclear affairs at the state department, Joseph Cirincione, senior vice president for national security and international policy, Centre for American Progress, and Ralph Earle II, former director, US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.